FUNDED OR NOT, PROP. 36 DRUG PROGRAM IS STILL LAW

Ventura County drug offenders could get less treatment and have to
pay for it themselves if a proposal to ax all funding for the
sweeping diversion program known as Proposition 36 is approved.

Faced with a historic budget deficit, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is
asking legislators to eliminate $108 million for the program
enrolling 36,000 drug offenders in California.

So county officials are looking at new ways to comply with
Proposition 36, the initiative state voters enacted in 2000 to divert
nonviolent drug offenders into treatment and out of jail.

It's not a program, it's a law," said Patrick Zarate, chief of the
county office of Alcohol and Drug Programs. "The implication is we'll
probably still need to provide treatment for these clients."

About 600 people are enrolled in Proposition 36 in Ventura County on
an average day. Nearly all have been convicted of possession or being
under the influence of an illegal drug. Most commonly, they use
methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana.

Ventura County's program is wholly funded by state dollars. Officials
had counted on having at least $1.9 million to run it in the next
fiscal year but now may have to rely on the $500,000 they had stored
away from previous years.

They met last week to brainstorm ways to offer a high-quality program
if the state funding dries up.

Everything's on the table and nothing's been decided," Zarate said afterward.

Among the options are having clients pay fees, reducing the length of
treatment below the six-month average, eliminating residential
treatment and using federal funds. Zarate said there also may be a
way to exclude hard-core users who refuse to comply with treatment
regimes and the law.

If you look at the statute, some of those egregiously dysfunctional
clients don't technically qualify," he said. "This is for minor drug
offenders who are nonviolent. A lot of the history of some of these
very persistent clients that revolve in and out of the program don't match."

But Laurie Kitchens, the probation manager overseeing the program,
said there's not a lot of wiggle room in the law.

Users are eligible if they committed a nonviolent drug possession
offense, did not commit a non-drug crime at the same time, and have
not committed a serious felony in the previous five years.

Nor is there any limit to the number of times an individual can
qualify for Proposition 36 absent a court finding that the person
won't comply with any form of treatment.

I have never seen anybody determined unamenable to treatment," Kitchens said.

The court might find that a deeply addicted person merely needed a
more intensive level of treatment rather than the customary
outpatient care, she said.

Some managers at private clinics say fees, set on a sliding scale,
could lead to better results.

If the client is held responsible for paying for treatment, they're
going to get more out of it," said Milli Kelly, clinical director of
Alternative Action Programs in Oxnard. The agency treats about 250
clients a month who have been placed in Proposition 36.

I think it's the beginning of a new adventure," she said. "I'm
looking very positively at this."

Kelly is not daunted by statistics showing that most Proposition 36
clients have no jobs that would generate the income to pay fees.
Alternative Action's vocational program places three to four clients
a week in jobs, she said. Others could be covered under the state
Medi-Cal insurance program, she said.

But Zarate and others say fees won't work for everyone.

It won't help the indigent and people who are deeply addicted and
need residential care," said Tom Renfree, executive director of the
County Alcohol and Drug Program Administrators' Association of California.

What we've found is that many of the people in Proposition 36 are
highly addicted and require an intensive level of treatment."

Renfree said this year marks the first time Schwarzenegger has
recommended pulling out all funding, but the state Department of
Finance has recommended it in the past.

Legally, the state can do it. The initiative required the Legislature
to put $60 million from the state's general fund into the program in
2000, the year the measure passed, and $120 million in successive
years, but the obligation ended in 2006.

An estimated two dozen government jobs would be at stake in Ventura
County and close to 800 in the state if the money vanishes. That
doesn't count unknown others at private clinics that have come to
rely on the funding, officials said.

Renfree foresees waiting lists and large numbers of drug users out on
the streets who can't get into treatment.

The people tearing their hair out the most are going to be the
judges," he said. "You can't incarcerate them if they're Proposition
36 eligible."