PILOT PROGRAM TO TAKE NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENDERS OUT OF PRISON

A pilot program to take nonviolent drug dealers out of prison and put them
into rehabilitation and job training programs has a much higher success
rate and costs far less than throwing them behind bars, a new study has
found. The results of the study don't surprise one man involved in drug
treatment services. "We knew that way before the studies came out," said
Alex Borowski, executive director of F.O.C.U.S. Inc., a drug and alcohol
treatment service. Borowski is involved in the drug court program in
Sequoyah County. He said a great number of Oklahoma inmates are in prisons
for non-violent offenses and the state locks up more women than other
states for non-violent offenses ranging from bad checks to those with
substance abuse problems. "Prisons are for people who are a threat to
society," Borowski said. "It's never solved our social ills. Some people
come out of prison in worse shape than when they entered the Department of
Corrections." He said there are a lot of drugs in the state's prisons.
Borowski said the cost of keeping a person in prison is approximately
$20,000 a year compared to $1,800 a year to send the person through a drug
court program.

He said education and vocation are key in the program. "If you don't have a
GED or high school diploma, you have to get one," he said. "You have to
become employed in the first month you're in the program." Borowski said
there are times when a person arrested for a drug offense may lose custody
of a child and they have to re-establish custody and show that they can
keep the child in a safe, structured environment. He said clients in the
program are monitored. "They're working and paying taxes," he said.
"They're getting their education." Borowski said one of his clients is now
in graduate school at Northeastern State University, has been clean for two
years and got her child back. "She's had a horrific past," he said.

Borowski said drug court clients are required to see the judge every two
weeks and report for random urinalysis. He said they must also adhere to a
curfew. "Before going to court each time, the agencies involved in the
client's case meet and 'staff' the client's progress," he said. "We all
have input and the judge is informed of our discussion.' Borowski said a
judge can, if needed, impose sanctions that could range from community
service to treatment to jail time depending on the severity of the
violation. Borowski said the program has a very good success rate. The home
office of F.O.C.U.S. Inc. is in Tahlequah, but there is also an office in
Sallisaw. Mack Bentley coordinates the drug court program in Cherokee
County. Officials have said the program also enjoys success in this county
as well. The pilot program was begun in the Brooklyn borough of New York
City in 1990 after the 1980s epidemic of crack cocaine and other drugs
deluged the court system with drug suspects. A five-year study by Columbia
University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse found the
rehabilitation-job training program is a far more productive and less
expensive way than jail time to reduce drug activity. "It makes a
phenomenal difference," said Joseph Califano, chairman of the Columbia
center. "What it shows is you don't have to write anybody off. Given the
right carrots and sticks, it will work with people even as deeply into
drugs as these people are." The Columbia study, released Tuesday, compared
280 program participants with 130 drug offenders who served prison terms.

It found those dealt with under the Brooklyn program were 67 percent less
likely to return to prison. Graduates also were 3 1/2 times more likely to
have a job after they left the program than before they went in, the study
found. The program, known as Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison, was
developed by District Attorney Charles Hynes and made available to addicts
who have repeatedly sold drugs but have committed no violent crimes. The
concept is to force addicts to see treatment through, with the ever-present
threat of being sent back to jail if they fail out of the program.

More than 1,700 addicts have gone through the program.

Its average student has been arrested five times and served about four
years in prison. Suspects can be eligible if they have sold drugs
repeatedly, have not been convicted of a violent crime and are facing
mandatory prison time. The 15- to 24-month program includes treatment,
counseling and job training in a strict environment designed to instill
self-discipline in its students. To enter the program, a prospect must
plead guilty to a felony, knowing that dropping out of the program will
mean prison time. Successful completion of the program removes the guilty
plea from the participant's record. "DTAP is a promising example of what
law enforcement can do to reduce the number of addicted drug offenders in
America's prisons," the report says. "It demonstrates the importance of
being tough on crime in the right way." Califano argued that for states
facing budget problems, similar treatment programs can save a great deal of
money.

The cost of placing an offender in the Brooklyn program is runs about half
that of incarceration, the Columbia center found.