NEW CRIME FIGHTING TACTIC TO STRESS DRUG TREATMENT OVER JAIL

ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Maryland prisons are filled to overflowing with 25,000
inmates, a costly legacy of two decades of a "lock 'em up and throw away
the keys" approach to fighting crime.

Now the state is prepared to embark on a new approach to crime control,
stressing treatment over punishment for many of the men and women who enter
the criminal justice system every year.

A law passed by the General Assembly this month creates the framework for
diverting nonviolent offenders who abuse drugs and alcohol into treatment
programs instead of prisons and jails. It was approved with support from a
broad coalition that included Gov. Robert Ehrlich, the Legislative Black
Caucus and conservative Republican lawmakers.

"If you can do something to resolve those (abuse) problems, you are going
to reduce incarceration, reduce recidivism," said Peter Luongo, director of
the state Alcohol and Drug Abuse Administration.

With the bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Ehrlich, Maryland
joins a national movement to stress treatment over incarceration for
nonviolent offenders whose crimes are likely the result of addiction to
drugs and alcohol, said Michael Blain, director of public policy for the
Drug Policy Alliance, a Washington-based organization opposed to the
national war on drugs.

Treatment "just makes sense, fiscally and socially, and is a step in the
right direction to reducing the harm done by the war on drugs," he said.

One key element of the plan allows state's attorneys to offer treatment
instead of prosecution to nonviolent offenders with addiction problems. The
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene would assess the extent of the
addiction problems and devise a treatment program.

The criminal violation would not become a part of the permanent record for
offenders who successfully complete the drug treatment program.

The legislation also would allow judges to put offenders directly into
treatment programs and create an Alcohol and Drug Abuse Council in each
county to develop local plans for treatment and counseling.

Vincent Schiraldi, executive director of the Washington-based Justice
Policy Institute, which lobbied for the new law, said the most important
provision allows early release of inmates who've committed nonviolent
crimes and have a treatment program to attend.

"The 1990s were the most punishing decade on record in Maryland history,"
Schiraldi said. During that period, the number of inmates in Maryland
prisons increased by almost 20 percent, from less than 20,000 to more than
23,000 according to the state Division of Correction.

The legislature, on a bipartisan basis, exhibited a willingness during the
2004 session to look beyond punishment and consider treatment as a better
way to deal with crime, he said.

The bill that was approved at the end of the legislative session was an
amalgam of bills proposed by Ehrlich and by members of the Legislative
Black Caucus. It was the result of what participants in the process said
were long and difficult negotiations.

"At several points we thought it was not going to fly," said Delegate Obie
Patterson, chairman of the Black Caucus, which made the bill its top
priority for the legislative session.

The proposed law is an important first step toward "to providing
individuals with counseling and treatment in lieu of stacking them up in
prison," Patterson said. "Hopefully, we can help these individuals to get
back on the right track and become productive citizens and get jobs and pay
taxes and help the state of Maryland."

About 23,300 inmates are confined in state prisons at an average annual
cost of $23,000 each, and about 3,000 sleep in areas such as gymnasiums
because there are not enough cells, Mary Ann Saar, secretary of public
safety and correctional services, said. The total does not include another
3,000 people held in the pretrial detention center while awaiting court dates.

Saar said 75 percent to 80 percent of inmates abused drugs or alcohol or
both before they were incarcerated.

The new law will mesh with the Ehrlich administration's plans to provide
more addiction treatment while inmates are in prison and "makes such sense
it should have been done immediately," she said.

Drugs are the driving force behind most criminal activity and the major
reason for the steady increase in prison population.

Schiraldi said about 42 percent of inmates are committed for drug offenses
in Maryland, the second highest rate in the nation after New Jersey. Many
of the others were jailed for crimes they committed to get money to buy drugs.

Anne Arundel County State's Attorney Frank Weathersbee said he does not
think the new law will have much impact in his county because he already
has instituted a drug court, as has Baltimore City, which serves much the
same purpose of diverting offenders from incarceration and into treatment
programs. It could be helpful in counties that do not have drug courts, he
said.

But Weathersbee agrees with the goals of the program. "Drugs is the engine
that drives crime," he said. "Eighty percent of all crime committed in this
county, this state, this country is related to drug abuse."

"If you reduce drug addiction, you reduce crime," Weathersbee said.

Supporters of the law such as Patterson and Schiraldi say the key to
success will be whether money is available to provide treatment for
offenders who want to break the cycle of crime and drug addiction.

Patterson said Ehrlich's commitment of an additional $3 million for
treatment programs is a good start, but more money will be needed.

Schiraldi also said additional funding will be required to really make a
difference in reducing crime and the prison population.

But he said something important happened at the 2004 legislative session.

"I think the legislature and the governor were rightly willing to take a
new look at our approach..., Schiraldi said. "This may slow or begin to
reverse Maryland's two decades of increasing incarceration."