Pubdate: Mon, 20 Oct 2003
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Copyright: 2003 Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.heraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/398

TREAT INMATES' ADDICTIONS

Florida Should Restore Funding Of Drug Programs

Addiction is a disastrous thing, but Rush Limbaugh is a lucky man in one 
respect: He can afford rehabilitation therapy for his drug habit. Thousands 
of offenders in Florida's jails and prisons aren't so fortunate.

For them, substance-abuse treatment is often out of reach, even when 
they've been ordered to get it. The state doesn't fund enough program slots 
to accommodate the thousands of offenders who need help.

Even in good times, Florida was far from generous in funding drug and 
alcohol treatment. But in the fiscal crunch of the past two years, the 
dollars haven't even matched inflation, much less population growth. 
Millions of dollars have been slashed from the Department of Corrections' 
treatment budget.

Southwest Florida's 12th Judicial Circuit is among those feeling the 
impact. The cuts are exacerbating a treatment shortage that is resulting in 
longer jail stays, fewer sentencing options and a court backlog. At 
Sarasota's First Step treatment center (which contracts with the DOC), 
funding for offender programs was cut 22 percent, state officials said. Not 
surprisingly, First Step's waiting list for those programs grew -- to 70 
people -- forcing some resentencings.

Nothing good happens when people don't get treatment. If they sit in jail 
instead of residential rehab, they soak up $21,527 a year in incarceration 
costs (that's Sarasota County Jail's average; prison can be far more 
expensive). When they eventually get out of jail, the untreated take their 
substance-abuse problems with them, putting public safety at risk.

It's estimated that 80 percent of criminal activity in Florida is "driven 
by drugs," James McDonough, director of the Governor's Office of Drug 
Control, said in 2000. With the problem comes "the breakdown of communities 
and families," he added.

Crime and social decay are extremely expensive, both in dollar and human 
terms. Treatment is an important way to curtail these troubles, but state 
lawmakers tend to fund prisons at the expense of substance- abuse programs 
- -- a Catch-22 approach, because drug and alcohol problems drive up the 
prison population.

As McDonough points out, "Even without the influx of new addicts, Florida 
is faced with the problem of reducing the already significant number of 
addicts present in our population, which will continue to grow unless we 
can get treatment to them."

That's the word from the governor's drug czar. Are legislators and the 
governor listening? If so, they will restore funding for the DOC's 
programs. Addictions don't recede in harsh economic times. Neither should 
treatment.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens