Some lawmakers and governor favor imprisonment over rehabilitation

By: Timothy Jue - 4/4/07 

Statistics from a state-funded UCLA study show that nearly half of California's drug offenders who opted for community-based rehabilitation programs in lieu of jail time never completed their treatment, and over 25 percent of offenders did not show up on their first day.

In 2000, voters passed Proposition 36, an initiative that gives nonviolent drug users an opportunity to stop using narcotics through local drug-treatment programs before they face incarceration. Every year since, a comprehensive study analyzing Prop. 36 has been conducted by UCLA assessing the efficacy of the program.

The most recent study, released in 2006, also showed that the program saved the state $2.50 for every $1 spent because offenders who successfully completed the rehabilitation process stayed out of the state's overcrowded prison system and county jails.

Critics of Prop. 36, including Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, said the high number of offenders who skipped out on treatment brought the program's success rate into question.

"The big problem is there's a loophole where offenders can opt to never show up for treatment," said Sabrina Lockheart, spokesperson for the governor. "In order to meet the voters' intentions that nonviolent offenders successfully complete treatment, the governor believes that it's appropriate to have a number of tools to ensure that treatment is completed."

Among those tools the governor is exploring is incarcerating drug offenders who do not attend their rehabilitation.

In 2006, Schwarzenegger wanted judges to issue brief jail sentences to drug users who failed to enter prescribed treatment. The state legislature also passed a law allowing judges to imprison repeat drug offenders for up to 30 days and remove them from rehab.

Recently, Schwarzenegger proposed cutting funding for the program, which has cost taxpayers $600 million to date.

Supporters of Prop. 36 have said they are not pleased with the governor's proposals. They say a lack of funding and neglect of recommendations issued by UCLA researchers working on the study, such as better supervision of drug users, has hampered the drug-treatment program from its intended full effect.

"We need to make sure it's possible for drug users to overcome the barriers to get treatment," said Margaret Dooley of the Drug Policy Alliance, speaking on behalf of Prop. 36's authors. "It's not easy for a drug user to walk out of court and just show up in treatment. We're asking a lot of a person who's not psychologically possible to do such a thing."

Dooley said imprisoning more drug offenders instead of placing them into community-based drug-treatment programs will only exacerbate overcrowding in prisons and jails. 

"We need to think right now when the governor is talking about prison reform," she said. "Prop. 36 is successful prison reform."

This year's analysis of Prop. 36 from UCLA is expected to be released this month.