TURNING POINT

SR Facility Would Provide What Was Missing From Prop. 36 -- Beds

Two years ago, California voters overwhelmingly supported Proposition 36, a
measure requiring drug treatment instead of prison time for nonviolent drug
offenders. But as history has shown, there's often a big difference between
what the voters want and what gets done.

In the case of Proposition 36, not enough beds exist across the state to
accommodate all the people who qualify for residential treatment, and many
areas are having a hard time getting treatment centers in place.

According to one recent state report, 36 percent of drug offenders who are
referred to treatment instead of prison aren't in treatment programs.

Where are they? In many cases, they're in jail or back out on the street,
being treated through out-patient services. Worse, many just disappear.

The problems are not as acute here as they are in other counties, but the
waiting list for Prop. 36 beds in Sonoma County is long and growing.

At 4 p.m. today, the Santa Rosa Planning Commission has a chance to address
this problem by approving a use permit for a 99-bed drug and alcohol
treatment facility on Arrowood Drive near Corby Avenue. It's here at the
abandoned St. Rose Manor residential care facility where Turning Point, a
program of the Drug Abuse Alternatives Center (DAAC), proposes to bring in
beds and consolidate some of its operations.

Although Turning Point, which handles Proposition 36 clients through a
contract with the county, has a solid reputation for helping people turn
their lives around, the proposal is facing opposition. Neighbors contend
the facility will present safety issues.

The facts show otherwise. The residents of Turning Point will have no cars,
no opportunity to leave the site between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. and will be
supervised 24 hours a day.

More to the point, the people in this program are there because they want
to turn their lives around -- and most of them succeed. Studies show that
80 percent of Turning Point clients are in stable living situations long
after they've left the program -- one of the best success rates in the state.

It's also important to remember these people are there because Sonoma
County voters want them to be. Two out of every three voters in this county
supported Proposition 36, the fifth-highest approval rate in all of California.

The Planning Commission should maintain that support -- and approve the
Turning Point plan.