FEW FUNDS FOR PAROLEE DRUG ABUSE TREATMENT

At the same time that the Kansas Department of Corrections is
emphasizing efforts to help thousands of parolees succeed after
release from prison, it is funding substance abuse treatment for only
a fraction of them.

Although experts say that generally two-thirds of offenders have a
history of substance abuse, the department has provided no money for
community-based substance abuse treatment for two budget years in a row.

So substance abuse -- one of the biggest problems among offenders and
a threat to public safety -- is receiving some of the least funding
from the department at a time when the investment might count the
most, experts say.

Parolee substance abuse is particularly important to Wichita. A
November 2006 Department of Corrections document titled "Offender
Risk Reduction and

Reentry Plan" notes that Wichita has the most parolees and that
substance abuse is one of their biggest problems.

As of Monday, there were 5,621 parolees statewide, including 1,317 in
Wichita -- and the numbers are generally rising, because parolees are
being sent back to prison at a lower rate even when they repeatedly
violate conditions of their parole, including the prohibition against drug use.

The department says it has embraced the idea that the best way to
solve parolees' problems is to work with them in the community, yet
for years now it has cut programs to help offenders prepare for
release and succeed afterward.

In any effort to help parolees survive life after prison, substance
abuse treatment after prison has "got to be key," said Ron Iacovetta,
a Wichita State University associate professor who studies corrections issues.

For many offenders, substance abuse is "the ingredient that triggered
a lot of crime to begin with," Iacovetta said.

Peter Ninemire spent 10 years in federal prison for marijuana
cultivation, then went on to earn a master's degree and now works as
a substance abuse counselor in Wichita. Ninemire said treatment in
the community is crucial because outside prison is "where the rubber
meets the road."

It's in the community where released convicts encounter obstacles,
stresses and bad influences, Ninemire said. "Anybody can talk a good
game in prison," he said, because there is so much structure there.

Police say drug addiction is what drives many offenders to break into
homes and steal things. And it figures heavily in domestic violence,
one of the most common crimes with one of the widest impacts on society.

But the sad irony, Ninemire said, is some people think that treating
parolees' drug and alcohol addictions is soft on crime when in fact
it is "the best anti-crime tool that we have."

Iacovetta said the department's budget is "a clear indication so far
that they're not appropriating the funds to deal with the problem."

"To say they're doing it, and to end up doing it, is actually two
different things," he said."... It takes money first."

Five years ago, the Department of Corrections joined a highly
publicized forum at WSU to share its plans for helping parolees to
re-enter communities in ways that helped them and protected the
public. But since then, funding for offender programs -- in prison
and after release from prison -- dropped steeply, then stayed flat.

The governor's office is proposing the first significant funding
increase in years. There's no guarantee the Legislature will approve
it, although there appears to be support.

The department provided the funding data in response to questions The
Eagle has raised over Alfred Brown, a parolee with a history of drug
abuse who was charged last month with nine counts of sex crimes
against two Wichita girls.

Optimistic outlook

The department head, Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz, said he
hopes funding will start improving over the next year with the
increase proposed by the governor's office.

So far, the department has developed and promoted detailed plans for
parolee reintegration, gotten its staff to embrace the approach and
begun reintegration efforts on a pilot basis, Werholtz said.

Treatment funding has fallen over the past seven years as a result of
painful budget cuts the department made, Werholtz said.

The department can't restore the money in one year; it will be sought
in phases, Werholtz said.

Department spokesman Bill Miskell said the agency "would like to have
more money" for substance abuse treatment.

Without money set aside to treat parolees, Miskell said, "most of the
offenders who are on supervision in Kansas now who need evaluation
and treatment for substance abuse are accessing the same limited
community resources that many other people are accessing. Those are limited."

Parolees typically pay for treatment the same way anyone else does;
often it's on a sliding fee scale, said Frances Breyne, a department
spokeswoman.

At the same time, many parolees have difficulty getting and
maintaining jobs. Even paying a $20 treatment fee can be difficult
for them, Ninemire said.

An explanation of the treatment and funding challenge can be found in
a February 2004 document by the Offender Reentry Task Force, a joint
project of the city of Wichita, Sedgwick County and the Department of
Corrections. It notes that in fiscal year 2001, "62 percent of the
releasing offenders had received substance-abuse treatment while in
prison. However, due to budget reductions, the majority of the
substance-abuse treatment available in the prisons has been eliminated....

"Today there are not treatment services available in the community,
beyond very limited transitional therapeutic community programs... ."

Things have improved since then, Werholtz said, with substance abuse
counseling available at the day reporting center in Wichita for up to
100 offenders, and at a day reporting center in Topeka, which treats
up to 40 offenders. A Shawnee County re-entry program provides access
to treatment services for up to 50 offenders.

One of the Wichita parolees who was sent to a day reporting center
and received substance abuse counseling is Alfred Brown, 56.
According to a parole officer's log and other records, Brown, who had
been convicted of felony drug crimes, tested positive for cocaine
five times within one month in 2005 while going to the day reporting
center. He sporadically attended treatment, records show. Last month,
prosecutors charged Brown with sex crimes against two girls.

Treatment options

Werholtz also noted other treatment services available in communities
for people needing substance abuse help. One of the programs is
through the Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. There
is some treatment for motorists who have four or more DUI offenses.
And under a 2003 law, Senate Bill 123, drug treatment is mandatory
for people convicted of drug possession who have no history of
violent crime, but it's not designed for parolees.

Beverly Metcalf, who heads Mirror Inc., a nonprofit organization that
provides substance abuse treatment and community-based correctional
services across the state, said she worries that parolees may not be
getting treatment because funding has been cut so much in recent
years and because the treatment system has limited slots.

Metcalf said she wonders if part of a lack of support for funding is
a general misconception that treatment doesn't work.

Ninemire, the former offender who now helps offenders as a substance
abuse counselor, said that, unfortunately, a parolee's best chance
for getting treatment is to get into trouble and be ordered to the
day reporting center or some other treatment program.

The biggest need, he said, is residential drug treatment, "where we
could give people more than three days in detox... because many
people need longer interventions." Without longer-term care, he said,
"they don't even stand a chance."

Goal is to restore money

According to figures the Department of Corrections provided to The
Eagle, in fiscal year 2005, only $155,071 out of the $29.4 million
budget for community-based programs went specifically for substance
abuse treatment.

In fiscal 2006 and in the estimated budget for the current budget
year -- fiscal 2007 -- there was no money budgeted for substance
abuse treatment.

The governor's office has requested $460,000 for fiscal 2008, and
Werholtz said he is optimistic the Legislature will approve it. A
separate proposal would increase funding for prison-based substance
abuse treatment from around $1 million in the current budget to
nearly $1.4 million.

Rep. Michael O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, chairman of the House Judiciary
Committee, agreed that it appears there is legislative support for
more funding.

"We have to step up to the plate and get some funding there, and I
think the timing is right," said O'Neal, who has served on a task
force dealing with corrections issues.

"The best policy is a safe re-entry program," O'Neal said.

It appears that inmates get good support while in prison, he said.

"What they really need is help on the outside," he said.

In the late 1990s, department figures show, funding rose sharply for
the full range of programs to help offenders prepare for release and
be successful after leaving prison. The programs included vocational,
academic and special education and treatment for sex offenders and
substance abuse.

But starting in fiscal 2001, the funding plummeted before leveling
out in fiscal 2004 through 2007.

Although funding would increase sharply under proposals for fiscal
2008, even if the money is approved, it would be significantly below
the levels of the late 1990s.

The goal, Werholtz said, is to restore programs that were gutted.