BUSH: INMATE SPIKE, FUNDING CUTS NOT TIED

Officials in Gov. Jeb Bush's administration moved aggressively Tuesday to
knock down speculation that cuts in drug-treatment funding contributed to a
spike in prison admissions, saying anomalies in a few counties are instead
to blame.

State prison officials were astonished this summer to see a dramatic jump
in the number of new inmates, and the Legislature last week passed an
emergency $65 million appropriation to add bed space.

The increase came a year and a half after an economic downturn forced
budget cuts, including cuts for drug-treatment programs for prisoners and
criminals on probation or other non-prison supervision programs.

The governor, the head of the prison system and the state's top drug- abuse
official joined Tuesday in saying they were convinced the budget cuts
couldn't have fueled the rise in prison admissions. They were responding to
media reports suggesting that drug-addicted criminals who didn't get
treatment were being released and returning to their drug habits only to be
arrested again.

"The budget cuts are too recent to have the implied impact on the rate of
recidivism," Bush wrote in a letter Tuesday to Supreme Court Chief Justice
Harry Anstead and state legislative leaders.

Still, Bush said it could be a factor in the future and vowed to try to
restore treatment money.

State officials also say that most people sent to prison for drug crimes
were arrested for dealing, not small-time possession, so treatment is
likely less of a factor.

Instead of budget cuts, local changes in judges and prosecutors may be more
to blame, said Jim McDonough, the head of the state's Office of Drug
Control Policy. If treatment cuts were driving an increase in crime, the
resulting increase in inmates should be statewide, they argue. But certain
areas of the state had remarkable increases while others didn't.

McDonough and Corrections Secretary James Crosby said that spikes in
inmates from Volusia, Hillsborough, Polk, Escambia and Leon counties were
driving the increase in the overall population and that something local
must be at work.