TREATMENT, NOT PRISON TIME

For reasons that make absolutely no sense, Wisconsin squanders taxpayers'
money and wastes lives by routinely jailing alcohol- and drug-addicted
offenders who are convicted of non-violent crimes instead of giving them
the kind of medical treatment that might cure the addiction that
accompanied their descent into crime. A bill that would end this wasteful
and destructive practice was attached to the budget bill that was approved
last week by the Legislature's Joint Finance Committee.

The bill is being pushed by a Milwaukee church alliance called Milwaukee
Inner City Congregations Allied for Hope, or MICAH. Dubbed TIP (for
Treatment Instead of Prison), the bill would make possible drug treatment,
rather than jail time, for drug and alcohol addicts convicted of crimes.
The county costs could be covered by savings in the prison system.

But only for non-violent criminals. Those convicted of violent acts, such
as murder, armed robbery and rape, would not be eligible. Backers of the
legislation stress that "violent criminals should remain behind bars to
maintain the safest communities possible."

Doing that, however - keeping people in jail - is ridiculously expensive.
TIP supporters say it costs, on average, more than $28,000 to keep a prison
inmate locked up for a year. It's true that prisons keep people off the
street, but they generally don't rehabilitate people.

And the drug treatment they provide - when they provide it at all - is
minimal. Waiting lists are long, and the treatment you get inside a prison
is more expensive and less effective than the community-based treatment
called for in the TIP legislation, according to supporters. Community-based
drug and alcohol treatment can cost less than half what it costs to keep
people locked up, they say.

It is no accident that one of the chief architects of the TIP legislation
in the Assembly is Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay), a former chief deputy
sheriff of Door County. Its chief Senate backer is another Republican,
Carol Roessler of Oshkosh.

The cost estimates foreseen in the legislation are not merely theoretical.
They have been documented. The research arm of the Arizona Supreme Court
estimates that a TIP-like initiative saved that state a net $6.7 million in
1999 - $7.7 million not spent on prisons, minus $1 million spent for
supervision and treatment of drug offenders.

Wisconsin's serious budget problems are partly the result of the high and
growing cost of keeping people in prison. It bears repeating that prison is
the only place for violent criminals. But if there is a safe, effective and
less costly alternative for those convicted of non-violent crimes, an
alternative that will help reduce alcohol and drug dependence, it should be
adopted.