SLOW GO

It's been eight months since the state could begin mandating drug treatment
rather than incarceration for nonviolent, small-possession drug offenders.
So has treatment been effective?

Unfortunately, officials don't know yet, and may not know for another year.

When the new law went into effect last Nov. 1, lawmakers and corrections
officials thought that the new guidelines could apply to any qualifying
offender who hadn't been sentenced yet. So officials estimated that 1,429
offenders statewide would qualify for treatment between Nov. 1 and June 30,
with 248 of those in Sedgwick County.

But some judges and sentencing officials ended up concluding that only
offenders who committed their crimes after July 1, 2003, were eligible. And
because it can take at least nine months from crime to conviction, not many
offenders have made it through the court system yet.

As a result, only 35 offenders in Sedgwick County have qualified so far.
And of those, 17 are still in the presentencing stage.

Statewide, only 467 offenders have qualified, with 97 of those still in the
assessment phase.

That's not enough people in treatment for enough time to get a good test of
the program's effectiveness.

The idea still remains good in theory: Why fill up state prisons with
low-level offenders at a cost of more than $20,000 per inmate per year,
especially when drug treatment can be better rehabilitation?

But how well it works in practice remains uncertain. Will treatment be
effective if it is the court's idea and not the offender's? Will there be
enough quality providers?

We had hoped to have some answers by now, but will have to keep waiting.

For the board, Phillip Brownlee