COUNTY PASSES DRUG TREATMENT READINESS TEST.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County received a B- grade on preparations for Proposition 36, the drug treatment initiative beginning Sunday that is expected to flood the county with 20,000 people eligible for drug treatment rather than prison.

Proponents of the measure, which 61 percent of voters favored, issued grades Wednesday to 11 of the state's largest counties that are based on the amount of money for treatment, range of treatment options and the inclusion of public health and community members in the planning process.

San Bernardino County received an F, the worst grade, while San Francisco received an A. Ventura County was not graded.

``We want the people of California to get what they voted for,'' said Glenn Backes, director of health and harm reduction at The Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy Foundation, a Sacramento nonprofit drug policy reform organization that graded the counties. ``We are embarking on a new drug policy to break the cycle of addiction.''

Each of the 11 counties was graded on four categories: money for treatment, treatment options, and the involvement of public health professionals and of community members in implementation plans. Counties could also earn extra credit by going beyond what's required under the new state law.

Los Angeles County received an overall grade of B- based on an A for treatment money; Bs for treatment options and the role of public health officials in planning, and a D for level of community involvement.

Lindesmith gave Los Angeles County extra credit for issuing district attorney criminal charging guidelines, which will help prevent ``over- charging'' offenders, making them ineligible for treatment under Proposition 36.

``Counties will not get away with using taxpayer money to fund more of the same failed policies,'' said Whitney A. Taylor, Lindesmith's Proposition 36 implementation director. ``We hope these criteria will help guide them in the right direction.''

If allocated properly, the $120 million spent annually on drug treatment statewide - including $30 million in Los Angeles County - will save taxpayers up to $1.5 billion in the next five years, Backes said, since incarceration is about six times more expensive than treatment.

Bob Mimura, director of the county's Criminal Justice Coordinating Committee, said the grading system doesn't mean a lot to those who are planning how to implement the new law because each county's criminal justice and drug treatment systems are so different.

``When you have something this complicated, you'll have some dislocation and chaos,'' Mimura said. ``But as long as the key players are working together, you'll have a successful outcome.

``It's like trying to radically change the direction of a supertanker. It takes a lot of people pushing at the bow.''

Francisco Trujillo, coordinator of the Southern California Criminal Justice Consortium, said he wasn't surprised the county got a D for community input. The consortium is concerned about the exponential growth of the state's prison system.

He said the county's 36-member Prop. 36 Implementation Task Force is made up mostly of law enforcement officials and bureaucrats, a few drug treatment advocates and no drug addicts.

Because of the way the county task force set up the program, Trujillo said it will give recreational drug users the majority of treatment services but provide little help to hard-core addicts.

``Prop. 36 was an attempt to move us away from looking at punishment as a solution to substance abuse problems,'' he said. ``But if you look at the three models the county designed, punishment is still the focus. That may work for some people but, by and large, it doesn't work for most of the community.''

Proposition 36 will shift many drug offenders from prisons to treatment programs and probation. Defendents convicted of nonviolent drug possession or use will receive drug treatment rather than jail or prison time. However, defendants will not be eligible if convicted at the same time of another crime or if they have one or more prior serious felony convictions in five years.

County probation officers, who handle about 65,000 probationers, are preparing to take on 14,000 more cases.

Also, officials estimate that the courts will divert about 20,000 additional drug offenders each year into treatment programs. The county already treats about 35,000 people a year, 20 percent of whom are referred by the criminal justice system.

Public Defender Michael P. Judge said the statewide estimate that the program would cost $120 million annually was based on treating 20,000 people - a woefully inadequate figure.

``We are likely to have that in Los Angeles County alone,'' Judge said.

He said task force members are devising multiple treatment strategies for people depending on the severity of their addictions, so recreational users are not over-treated and serious addicts get the help they need.

Officials hope to replicate the success of the county's drug court programs, which have about a 75 percent success rate with hard-core addicts who remain arrest-free up to six years after graduation.

But because Gov. Gray Davis' budget revisions cut drug court funding from $18 million to $9.5 million statewide, Judge is worried that the successful drug court programs, which divert people into treatment in exchange for dropping charges against them, will be undermined.

``Proposition 36 is not going to take up the slack because you can only get Proposition 36 after you are convicted,'' Judge said.

In a recent trial run of Proposition 36 in Orange County, about 40 percent of the defendants sent to treatment programs rather than jail did not return to court as required for monitoring.

``That's a formula for disaster,'' Judge said. ``If you are going to let somebody out of jail, you need to have treatment for them. That's what we do with the existing drug treatment courts in Los Angeles County.''

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SOURCE: The Lindesmith Center - Drug Policy Foundation

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