Pubdate: Tue, 07 Dec 1999 Source: Associated Press Copyright: 1999 Associated Press Cited: Office of National Drug Control Policy: http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/ Note: This conference has been showing on CSPAN and is to be rebroadcast, according to http://www.c-span.org/ DRUG CHIEF SEEKS MORE TREATMENT, LESS JAIL The Clinton administration's drug policy director, decrying a ''failed social policy'' of incarcerating addicts, is starting a push to expand treatment opportunities in the nation's criminal justice system. ''We're seeking a historic shift in getting drug treatment effectively integrated in the criminal justice system,'' Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, said Monday. ''I would argue we have a failed social policy that commonsense legislators at the state level and city councils and county executive commissions need to look at so we can see why we can save money and improve public safety by going this direction.'' The issue is the topic of a three-day conference beginning today and led by McCaffrey along with Attorney General Janet Reno and Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. The conference brings together hundreds of law enforcement and corrections officials, drug experts and state lawmakers. For years, officials have discussed ways to help nonviolent offenders who are often in and out of jails due to addictions to drugs or alcohol. ''This is not a soft-on-crime issue,'' McCaffrey said. ''It's trying to get good corrections policy combined with drug treatment policy.'' Some of the programs McCaffrey cited as possibilities for states to enact include more testing and treatment in prisons as well as more drug courts, which have increased in 10 years from one to 600. Each year, 500,000 offenders are released from state prisons and communities, most untreated. Between 65 percent and 70 percent of all untreated parolees with histories of cocaine and heroin use return to drugs within just three months of release, according to Department of Justice statistics. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake