Finding a new way to treat drug offenders

CRIME is down, as a federal report showed this week. But it is
not gone. And when you a look at who is filling our prisons, there 5 a

common denominator drugs. Thirty percent of the people in state

prisons and 60 percent of those in federal prisons are serving sentences
on drug violations. Twothirds of the people arrested for any crime test
positive for drug use; in some cities, 84 percent of those arrested test
positive for drugs.

Drugs are a cohort of crime. For example, in Manhattan in 1995, 54
percent of the men arrested for violent crimes and 72 percent of the men
arrested for property crimes tested positive for ifiegal drugs.

We can continue to build prisons and ifil them with drug abusers. Or we
can try another approach that has an established success record. A recent
study on drug courts which combine punishment with treatment shows
dramatic reductions in recidivism and crime rates. It's time we take a
serious look at new ways t6 fight crime.

There are 200 drug courts across the country with another 100 in the
planmng stages. In the Bay Area, Oakland, Richmond, Hayward, San
Francisco and San Jose have set up drug courts or incorporated drug court
strategies.

The courts operate differenfly, but they employ several basic
principles. They integrate alcohol and drug treatment with the criminal
prosecution of the case. They monitor participants with frequent drug
testing and provide access to continued treatment and rehabilitation.
Rather than taking the traditional adversarial approach, defense and
prosecution attorneys work together to ensure the defendants successful
participation in the diversionary program.

If drugs are integral to most criminal activity, it only makes sense
that drug treatment will help reduce crime. In addition, the drug court
approach is more cost effective.

And there are other savings as well. For every drug abuser who gets off
welfare, taxpayers save $12,000; for every baby born drug free, the
savings is $250,000; for every child in foster care who goes home to a
drugfree parent, we save between $4,000 and $5,000 a year.

The effectiveness of drug treatment is well documented. Judges, police
officers and drug counselors endorse the approach. Unfortimately, the
treatment programs only reach a fraction of drug abusing offenders.

Faced with the task of trying to stop the revolving door between drug
abuse and crime, we need to adopt an approach that goes to the root of
the problem rather than one that stops at the symptom.

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