Pubdate: Sun, 17 Mar 2002
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)
Copyright: 2002 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Contact:  http://www.seattle-pi.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/408
Author: Norm Maleng
Note: Norm Maleng is King County prosecuting attorney.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER: STATE DELIVERS MONEY FOR DRUG TREATMENT

It seems from reading the newspaper these days that there is nothing but 
bad news coming from Olympia, with headlines about budget deficits, 
cutbacks and gridlock. What may have been lost among the bad news is a 
courageous legislative achievement in bringing balance to our strategy 
against illegal drugs.

With the passage of HB 2338, we have taken a huge step forward in reforming 
drug sentencing laws. The bill was sponsored in the House by Ruth Kagi, 
D-Lake Forest Park, and Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island, and in the Senate 
by Adam Kline, D-Seattle, and Jeanine Long, R-Mill Creek.

The Legislature last enacted major drug policy reform in 1989 by doubling 
prison sentences for drug delivery crimes and promising to build a drug 
treatment infrastructure within the criminal justice system.

The prison sentences were appropriate at the time and have contributed to 
our reduced crime rate. They have been an effective tool for law 
enforcement; we have not lost neighborhoods to drug dealers, as has 
occurred in many major U.S. cities.

The result of tough sentencing laws, however, has been that 25 percent of 
the prison inmates in the state are there for a drug crime, many for 
selling less than $50 worth of drugs.

What did not happen after 1989 was the promise of state-funded drug 
treatment. With the exception of county drug courts, which are funded by 
county budgets supplemented by federal grants and some state assistance, 
there has been no attempt to build up treatment as an equal partner with 
law enforcement.

The bill, now awaiting Gov. Gary Locke's approval, does these three things:

*Reduces the prison terms for minor drug dealers by about 6 months for the 
first offense, from 24 months to 18 months.

*Captures the money that we would have spent on incarceration within the 
Department of Corrections.

*Invests that money, up to $8.25 million a year, into drug treatment 
programs within county criminal justice systems and the state prisons.

The current state drug sentencing laws, which are tough but rigid, will be 
replaced by a sentencing scheme that will allow prosecutors to distinguish 
between small-time addicted dealers and those who peddle drugs for profit. 
The former will still face prison time, but also have drug treatment 
programs to help them escape the cycle of addiction and imprisonment. Major 
dealers, and those who sell to minors, will actually face longer terms than 
they do today.

Arrest, prosecution and imprisonment were never supposed to be the entire 
strategy to combat drugs. Drug abuse is a complex issue that cannot be 
successfully battled without a comprehensive strategy that incorporates 
treatment as an equal partner with law enforcement.

We have learned, through our drug court experience, that you can force 
people to go through drug treatment. Drug court gives defendants a choice 
- -- incarceration or treatment. Many people need the threat of jail to 
motivate them to change their behavior. A judge, working with a treatment 
provider, closely monitors the progress or relapse of participants, who are 
kept honest by regular and random urinalysis tests.

Those who succeed after a year or more of supervision have their cases 
dismissed. Those who fail the program are found guilty as charged and serve 
their sentence, in county jail or state prison.

We have a success rate in drug court of 40 percent. That's an amazing 
statistic when you consider the powerful hold that drugs can have on 
people's minds and bodies. Drug court graduates are far less likely to be 
re-arrested than those who simply went to jail for their use of drugs. Drug 
treatment costs about $2,500 a year, or one-tenth the cost of 
incarceration. It also offers hope for redemption to people who are 
otherwise facing a miserable future of addiction and incarceration.

But only a fraction of those in need of treatment can be served by drug 
courts, and only a dozen of our 39 counties even have one.

We need a balance of treatment and sanctions. The 2002 Legislature has 
stepped up to the plate with a bold approach that signals a new direction 
in our drug policy. They did so with bipartisan support and a pledge of 
state funding that fulfills an old promise that treatment would work 
hand-in-hand with law enforcement. The bill provides the stable state 
funding that counties need in order to make drug treatment available within 
their criminal justice systems.

This is the good news from Olympia.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager