Pubdate: Mon, 14 Aug 2000
Source: Orange County Register (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Orange County Register
Contact:  P.O. Box 11626, Santa Ana, CA 92711
Fax: (714) 565-3657
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/

BREAKING DRUG HABITS

Although no official spokesman will say so, the encouraging news that Orange County plans a $1.3 million pilot program to treat the substance-abuse problems of some county jail inmates suggests some welcome rethinking of the ill conceived notion that the way to handle addiction problems is to lock people up. Although the program might fall short of the ideal, we hope it is successful and leads to more extensive second thoughts.

County supervisors approved on August 1 a proposal to create a separate 64-bed section within the Theo Lacy Facility in Orange for intensive alcohol and drug rehabilitation. "Our hope is that it will reduce recidivism by reaching a substantial portion of those people who would not be having problems with the law except for their dependence on alcohol or drugs," Assistant Sheriff Rocky Hewitt told us. "That can make a big difference to the community. Our studies estimate that people with serious addiction problems commit eight crimes of varying degrees of seriousness for each time they're caught."

The program will be voluntary and intensive. "We want to start with people who have a serious commitment to modifying their behavior," said Mr. Hewitt. "They will get 12 hours a day (eight very intensive) of training, counseling and help for 90 days or more. Upon release there will be job training, placement assistance and aftercare. The idea is to help people who want to be productive, contributing members of society to succeed and get out of the cycle of doing drugs, doing crimes and going to jail."

If the program is successful - Melissa Taber of the county contracting office told us the contract includes outcome measurements and evaluation - the hope is that it can be expanded to 125 beds and eventually to as many as 500 beds. The contract to run the program has been given to College Health Enterprises of Downey, which has done drug diversion programs for inmates and people on probation in Los Angeles and Orange Counties since 1986.

If the program in Orange County grows as expected it will be one of the largest and most comprehensive in the nation and could serve as a model for other jurisdictions. Nobody thinks it will be easy. Changing behavior is difficult, especially for adults with addiction problems. But there are about 5,000 inmates in Orange County jails on any given day and Mr. Hewitt told us about 60 percent of them are there to a large extent because of drug or alcohol problems. Between 30 percent and 40 percent, typically, are in on drug charges, and many more committed crimes to raise money to buy drugs or because their judgment was impaired because of addiction.

These people are hurting themselves and in many cases actively hurting others. As Mr. Hewitt put it, "we haven't been real successful with punishment" when it comes to drug and alcohol addiction, so people in the Sheriff's Department, as well as in county health services and the community at large, are eager and excited to see this program get underway, which should happen in three months or so. There is, however, a mildly troubling philosophical aspect that must be weighed. The assumption behind a government rehabilitation program is that government is responsible for helping people with drug and alcohol problems. That assumption could - not necessarily will but could - undermine the concept of personal responsibility and support the generally undesirable theory of a Therapeutic State, along with the pernicious notion that coercion is the best way to straighten people out.

Still, offering help in a jail implies a recognition that addiction is a problem with medical, moral and personal behavior aspects rather than solely a legal problem. That's a valuable and actionable insight. If it works - and if more people can progress to the understanding that making drug addiction a legal problem complicates matters more than it helps - it could be constructive for the individual and for the rest of us.
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