CALIFORNIA TAKING A STEP BACK IN DRUG TREATMENT

Santa Cruz just became the latest county to announce it would "end"
the Proposition 36 treatment-instead-of-incarceration program for
low-level drug offenses because of a lack of funding. This
terminology is confusing and misleading -- even for those who should
know better.

Proposition 36, the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act, was
approved by 61 percent of California voters in 2000 -- and it can
only be undone by the voters. That is, it doesn't "end" simply
because the state and county aren't funding alcohol and drug treatment.

Counties that deny Prop. 36 participants access to adequate drug
treatment, such as by providing support groups e.g., Alcoholics
Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous rather than licensed care, provide
grounds for each defendant to bring suit. Just as importantly,
California courts simply cannot remand people to jail or prison for a
petty drug offense if that defendant is eligible for and opts into
probation under Prop. 36.

This is good news for California taxpayers.

According to UCLA research, Prop. 36 has helped reduce the number of
people incarcerated for personal drug possession by 40 percent or
8,000 people, saves $2.5-$4 for every dollar invested more than $2
billion so far, diverted 36,000 people into treatment a year when
funded, and has had no negative impact on crime trends. If those
8,000 people were still in prison, taxpayers would spend an
additional $400 million on corrections Advertisement this year alone.

California taxpayers are saving money by sending fewer people to
state prison for drug possession, so it's hard to understand why
Sacramento is moving us back to a time when prison was the primary
response to petty drug possession and treatment was not available.
It's even more disheartening to realize that we may already be there.

Prop. 36 has slowed corrections growth by removing $400 million in
annual costs, but not a penny of that has gone into treatment. State
funding for Prop. 36 treatment fell from a peak of $145 million in
2007-08 to nothing in 2010. The governor has proposed no new funding
for the program in 2011. It's a simple equation: the less funding
available, the less treatment offered. This used to mean longer
waiting lists to enter a treatment program months long in some cases;
now it means you may never get treatment.

Despite the success of Prop. 36, California still incarcerates 9,000
people for petty drug possession at an annual cost to taxpayers of
$450 million. It's not entirely clear why they're there, but sadly
it's probably because they have a drug problem. That's what happens
when you reduce access to treatment. Ironically, few if any of them
are receiving behind-bars treatment, which has also grown scarcer in
recent years.

So, while such "progressive" states as Texas, New York, New Jersey,
Michigan, Indiana, South Carolina and Oklahoma implement policies to
divert people convicted of petty drug offenses from prison,
California is doing the opposite.

By making even small changes to the front end -- that is, who we send
to prison -- California can reduce prison spending and protect public
safety. By making drug possession a misdemeanor, for example, the
state could safely cut prison spending by $450 million per year, and
eliminate the barriers to success that currently follow a felony
conviction. If it also changed penalties for people convicted of drug
possession for sale most of which involve selling to support one's
own habits or to share with friends, the state would reduce prison
costs by another $500 million annually. Some of that savings could go
to reducing the budget deficit; some could go toward restoring the
state's drug treatment system.