PRISON CROWDING: A WAY OUT

Finally, Drug Treatment Gets A Chance To Reduce The Churn

Santa Clara County will soon operate a drug treatment program at the
county's Elmwood Correctional Center for state prison parole violators.

It's about time. Had the state Department of Corrections already set
up more alternatives to prison, it might have avoided the mess it's
in.

Last month, Corrections declared an emergency to deal with inmate
crowding. Over the past year, the prison population has soared to
nearly 163,000, a new record, and the Corrections budget is now
running a half-billion dollars in the red.

An unanticipated rise in serious crime is one reason. But so is the
revolving door that annually sends 70,000 parolees back to the state
prison -- many for minor violations, stemming from drug problems.
There they rot for 90 or 120 days, without training or therapy, only
to be dumped back on the street again.

Corrections has been under pressure to reduce the churn. This year's
state budget assumed a savings of $190 million from setting up cheaper
locally based programs. The Little Hoover Commission, in a report last
year, estimated that a half-billion dollars could be saved annually --
nearly 10 percent of Corrections' budget -- by aggressively pursuing
drug treatment programs, work training, halfway houses and electronic
monitoring of non-violent parolees.

Instead, programs have trickled out; the estimated savings this fiscal
year could be only $15 million.

Santa Clara County is on the verge of signing one of the first
contracts. The drug-treatment program at Elmwood, a minimum-security
facility in Milpitas, will house up to 172 parole violators in
currently empty barracks. It will provide the county with revenue it
needs to stave off further county Department of Corrections cuts. The
30-day program, available only for non-violent offenders, will be
followed by three months of monitoring and community treatment.

State Corrections officials offer lots of reasons for the delay in
rolling out community-based programs: protracted negotiations with the
counties, a state hiring freeze, the time it takes to set up new
programs. Historically, former Govs. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis and
the prison guards union fought alternatives to prison.

The state can no longer afford excuses or delays. Reform is in the
interest of inmates and their jailers.

Smart policy, good $ense Drug rehab for non-violent parole violators
is wise public policy; it's also fiscally smart.

Keeping an inmate at a state prison costs, on average, $85 per day.
The state will pay the county $59 per day for each of the 172 parolees
housed at Elmwood Correctional Center.

That adds up to $3.7 million in income for the county -- and $1.6
million in savings for the state.