With the recent resignation of California's second Secretary of Corrections in the last three months many eyes are on the state to see how it will bounce back from issues such as overcrowding, strained resources, and a struggling health care system.

But there is a bright spot in California, one that is often overlooked. A newly released report from the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington-based operation that reviews alternatives to incarceration, reveals that the state's recent focus on rehabilitation and treatment programs is reducing the inmate population by 34 percent.

“California has experienced a significant drop in the number of people incarcerated for drug related offenses,” says Jason Seidenberg, co-author of the JPI report. “They have moved people out of corrections and into public health areas where they can get the help they need.”

With the passing of Prop. 36 in 2000, California citizens decided that treatment would benefit drug offenders more than prison time. It works in conjunction with the Three Strikes Law, which mandates that those with three charges against them automatically go to prison for 25 years. Under Prop. 36, convictions on drug-related charges would send third-time offenders to rehab, rather than a cellblock.

“Based on information from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the prison population went from about 20,000 to about 16,000,” says Scott Ehlers, co-author of the report.

But there were also concerns throughout several communities that Prop. 36 would lead to more instances of violent crime. Many citizens feared that since drug offenders were no longer locked up, they would pose more of a threat to their communities.

“People are often wary of the impact on public safety when it comes to treatment instead of incarceration. But we found that since Prop. 36 was passed, violent crime has gone down at a faster rate than the rest of the country. I hope that information will alleviate some fears that if these people do not go to prison, they will commit violent crimes because the statistics here show that's not the case,” says Ehlers.

A recently released UCLA report on California's prison system found that treatment instead of incarceration can result in a huge tax savings. UCLA researchers found that Prop. 36 saved taxpayers about $173.3 million in its first year.

While proposition proponents are pleased with these results, some still question the end results. Although incarceration rates are down, researchers are still working to find out exactly how effective treatment programs in California are when it comes to full rehabilitation.

Neither the JPI nor the UCLA studies prove that treatment works in the long run yet, but they do show that rehabilitation is an alternative worth considering for DOCs and taxpayers.