MOVE COULD SWELL INMATE RANKS

Anti-Drug Funding Rise Might Work Against Order to Cut Crowding

Two weeks after federal judges ordered California to reduce its
prison population, an arm of the Schwarzenegger administration is set
to vote on increased funding to police anti-drug units, potentially
putting even more offenders behind bars.

An advisory board for the California Emergency Management Agency is
expected to decide today whether to channel $33 million in federal
money to narcotics task forces around the state that have proven
particularly adept at apprehending drug criminals.

Critics of the government drug policies say that money should instead
be directed to drug-treatment programs whose funding has been sliced
amid California's budget woes.

"While one side of the government is addressing prison overcrowding,
another side seems to be acting directly counter to that goal," said
Margaret Dooley-Sammuli, deputy state director of the nonprofit Drug
Policy Alliance.

The bulk of the money is slated to help multi-jurisdictional task
forces in all 58 California counties that investigate and apprehend
narcotics offenders.

Money also would go to marijuana-suppression efforts around the state
and the California Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement, which coordinates
with federal agents on border drug trafficking.

John Lovell, a spokesman for the California Narcotics Officers'
Assn., called the Drug Policy Alliance opposition "predictable" but
wrong at a time when Mexican drug cartels are boosting
methamphetamine production and operating marijuana plantations in
state forests, including the one blamed for starting a wildfire Aug.
8 in Santa Barbara County.

He said the spending on anti-drug task force efforts is "not only
appropriate, it's too bad the amount isn't larger."

Dooley-Sammuli believes the bulk of the money would go toward
generating more arrests of street-level offenders, not on cracking
down on high-level drug criminals.

We are not getting the best bang for our buck," she said.

As now envisioned, the state's anti-drug-abuse enforcement program
could have its funding boosted substantially over last year, in part
because of nearly $20 million in federal stimulus money allocated in July.

The Drug Policy Alliance estimates that the increase could yield
13,000 arrests during the coming years, resulting in prison time for
nearly a quarter of those apprehended, at a cost of $160 million,

Funding for drug treatment programs was slashed roughly in half from
$120 million two years ago.

Meanwhile, the state is grappling with pressure to reduce prison crowding.

This month, a three-judge panel ordered the state to shrink its
prison population by more than 40,000 in the next two years.

Last month, legislators approved a $1.2-billion reduction in prison spending.