Pubdate: Wed, 29 Oct 2003 Source: Watertown Daily Times (NY) Copyright: 2003 Watertown Daily Times Contact: http://www.wdt.net Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/792 Author: Associated Press Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?140 (Rockefeller Drug Laws) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) TWELVE MORE COUNTIES ADVOCATE DRUG TREATMENT PROGRAM FOR CONVICTS TROY - Twelve more counties have signed on to a program allowing prosecutors to send some drug offenders to treatment programs instead of prison, Gov. George E. Pataki announced Monday. The expansion of the "Road to Recovery" program comes after another year in which negotiations failed to reform the harshest aspects of the Rockefeller drug laws. One feature of reformed drug sentencing laws would be to send more nonviolent, drug-addicted offenders to treatment instead of jail. Pataki said "Road to Recovery" is modeled after a program first tried in the early 1900s by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes. It was later adopted in the other four New York City boroughs. Last year, pilot drug treatment diversion programs were tried in five counties outside the city: Monroe, Dutchess, Warren, Washington and broom. State officials said prosecutors in those five counties will continue their programs and that district attorneys in 12 other counties have applied for funding to try their own " Road to Recovery" programs: Erie, Nassau, Oneida, Onondaga, Orange, Niagara, Rensselaer, Rockland, Schenectady, Suffolk, Weatchester and Saratoga. About 1,200 people are currently enrolled in : Road to Recovery" or its counterpart in New York City, called "DTAP." About 180 defendants are expected to get treatment in the next year under the expansion of "Road to Recovery" said Lynn Rasic, a spokeswoman for the Pataki administration on criminal justice issues. Pataki said $2.8 million in state money will be provided to help fund the program. He said other prosecutors may sign up later after waiting "to see the cost, to see the funding streams and also to see the effectiveness" of "Road to Recovery" programs elsewhere. Under the program, qualified defendants must complete 12 months of what Pataki called intensive treatment. Charges against defendants are held in abeyance as they undergo treatment, and if they can't complete the regimen, the charges can be imposed and the defendants sent to prison. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin