DRUG PROGRAM'S POPULARITY KEEPS A BACKLOG IN JAIL

A shortage of beds is keeping some Harris County probationers waiting in
jail for as long as a year before they can start their sentences in a
highly touted state drug rehabilitation program.

Because of the lengthy delay, some officials are calling for more funds to
add more beds to the program that they say is highly effective.

About 140 county inmates are waiting in jail after being sentenced to
probation, which required them to spend time in the drug treatment facility
called Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility, or SAFP.

SAFP officials say there is an average 100day wait, but jail officials say
a normal wait can be from six months to a year.

The probationers are sentenced to SAFP by judges who think drug
rehabilitation is appropriate. Most are told there will be a three or
fourmonth wait. Females do not have a long wait, but the male inmates are
waiting much longer.

State Sen. John Whitmire, DHouston, who heads the Senate's Criminal
Justice Committee, said he is pushing for more funding because the long
wait is "outrageous."

Whitmire said he is trying to get the state to fund contracts with counties
and private facilities to begin operating more SAFP programs. He said he
wants 1,000 more beds because the program works, and it is cost effective.

"It's critical that the state get additional beds," he said. "The state can
find the money if they want to."

One wellknown jail inmate, Shaun Kelley, son of Councilwomanelect Jean
Kelly, has been waiting for more than four months to enter the program.

Kelley, 36, was sentenced in August to SAFP after he violated his 10year
probation for drug possession by taking a prescription drug while in jail.
His probation was terminated early by former state District Judge Lupe
Salinas. Kelley is still waiting for a transfer.

Another inmate, Roger Williams, 35, was sentenced in May to a threeyear
probation for check forgery, his first criminal offense. After he failed
three urine tests, his probation was amended and he was given the choice of
nine months in jail or the SAFP program, which he chose.

"I figured I would go there and get some help and do my time at the same
time," he said from jail Thursday. "I'm not even getting help. I'm not
doing anything."

Williams said he will end up waiting for more than seven months to enter
SAFP. He plans to spend nine months in the program, and then three months
in an aftercare facility.

"I have a family. I have two daughters and a wife," said Williams.

The backlog of 800 inmates statewide is blamed on a lack of space, said
Holli Rich, SAFP coordinator for Harris County. Rich said the state is
competing for spaces in 11 SAFP facilities.

The drug program is a lockeddown, intensive, daily drug rehab program that
boasts an impressive 16 percent recidivism rate after the first year of
release, she said.

The recidivism rate for regular probationers is more than 50 percent.

After inmates are released, they must live in a halfway house for
aftercare for three months and then have to report as an outpatient for
nine months to a year.

SAFP facilities simply cannot keep up with the demand, she said.

"I think the wait is a major problem," she said. "The faster they get into
the treatment, the faster they can get out and utilize the tools they
learned. It should be fixed."

Rich said the minimum wait last year was six months for 200 inmates.

"It's obviously working, so why aren't we putting more money into it?" she
said.

Debbie Roberts, SAFP's assistant director for programs, said there are
4,500 beds statewide in SAFP facilities. She said it takes about $11
million to operate a 500bed facility, including the aftercare programs.

In 1995, she said, officials added a lot of beds and the backlog was
erased. In January of 1996, the backlog went to 100.

Roberts said legislators have indicated they want to fund expansion during
the next session.

Whitmire said his committee always has wanted more space, but the program
has been under funded.

Cells in prison are best utilized by violent offenders, and drug treatment
programs can keep those who can reform out of those cells. Treating these
nonviolent offenders who have drug problems can solve the root cause of
crime, Whitmire said.

Whitmire is afraid that judges will stop sending defendants to SAFP if they
think there is no space available.

State District Judge Mark Kent Ellis said he prefers SAFP to any other drug
program and wishes his probationers could enter the program quicker.

However, he said detoxing in jail is not the worst thing for these
defendants either.

"Generally, I am concerned. It's a long wait," he said. "I don't send them
there unless they absolutely need it. But part of the goal is being
accomplished (with them in jail)."

Ellis said he is seeing more defendants choose jail time rather that wait
for an opening in SAFP.

Defense attorney Deborah Gottlieb, who has represented many clients who
were sentenced to SAFP, said the inmates do get credit toward their
probation while sitting in jail, but do not get credit for the jail time if
their probation is revoked.

"There needs to be an expanded program. There needs to be more SAFPs," she
said. "I don't think there should ever be a 30day wait. At the very
outside, 90 days."

She also has seen inmates forgo the drug treatment because of the wait.

Though many at the courthouse acknowledge the problem the wait is causing,
an admissions clerk at the state office denies that people are having to
wait seven months to enter the program.

Missy Yeager, the clerk, said there must be a problem with processing in
the jail.

Jail officials, however, said that is not the problem. The SAFP wait list
creates a burden for the jail, said Capt. Don McWilliams, a Sheriff's
Department spokesman.

McWilliams said the jail has to pay $40 a day for these inmates, and it
creates management problems.

"That's 140 extra people we are having to manage. It's significant. It's
less than optimum for us," he said.

Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle