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| Lawmakers study drug offender options |
| By normantranscript.com |
| Published: 10/01/2010 |
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OKLAHOMA CITY — The state has been asked to revamp how it treats nonviolent drug offenders and to find $95 million in new spending to pay for it. Terri White, commissioner of the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, presented her case to lawmakers Thursday during an interim House of Representatives study. White and other state officials briefed lawmakers on the costly impact drug users have on the prison population and suggested ways to improve the system. “Surely, I think the majority of us can agree that for individuals who are scary and dangerous, prison may be the right place for them absolutely,” she said. “But for individuals who are incarcerated because they have untreated mental illnesses and drug addiction for nonviolent offenses, let’s talk about if there is a better way to deal with this.” White said her department recently decided to ask the state for about $95 million annually for the Smart on Crime Project. The wide-ranging proposal would focus on creating prevention and pre-booking programs, expanding mental health courts and ensuring inmate reintegration services. White said the annual cost of incarceration for one person is $19,000 and that rises to $23,000 for inmates with a serious mental illness. She argued the more effective and less costly alternative for many drug offenders would be drug court, which carries an annual cost of $5,000, or mental health court at $5,400. She said the financial cost of the current system is too expensive for taxpayers, does not address the underlying problems of the crimes and disrupts thousands of families throughout the state. The human impact Oklahoma City resident Heather Horn said her and her family’s lives “completely crumbled” after her husband was arrested and sent to prison on nonviolent drug possession charges in 2008. Not being able to pay the bills, she ended up homeless for more than a year and struggled just to find food for her family. “Sometimes it felt like I was being punished for my husband’s crimes,” she said. “He is in prison, and although he has a lot of problems and stress to deal with in prison, he at least has all his basic needs met, and I can’t do that for myself or my children.” Horn, who is a recovering drug addict herself, said she does not think her husband is receiving the necessary help for his drug addiction problems. She said instead of finding him treatment and rehabilitation, the prison system only exposed him to more of the criminal lifestyle. “He said he walked in there with an associate degree on how to use drugs, and he is going to walk out with a master’s degree of how to use, sell and manufacture drugs,” she said. “He said he would sleep every night next to a child molester that was treated the exact same way that he was.” Sharell Caton, director of Ada’s Family Crisis Center, said many former inmates come through the outpatient substance abuse facility with problems that were not addressed in prison. “We got a ton of them on probation that are referred here,” she said. “And it seems they have gotten very little treatment in prison, and some of them got nothing. So they come out and just relapse.” Caton said she advises the state to focus more on using drug courts and granting first- or second-time offenders probation with treatment options rather than imprisonment. “Sending them to jail might get them off the streets for a little,” she said, “but in the long term it doesn’t do much good. She also said the Department of Corrections should better treat and diagnose mental or behavioral health disorders for drug users. She said one patient, who was addicted to Lortab pain medication, relapsed shortly after being released from an 18-month prison sentence. It wasn’t until he was at the outpatient center that he was diagnosed and given medication for bipolar disorder. “He’s been clean ever since,” Caton said. Alternatives Kenny Holloway, deputy director of Treatment and Rehabilitative Services for the Department of Corrections, said the DOC offers many programs for substance abuse. But with budget challenges facing the department, he acknowledged they are not able to do enough. In fiscal year 2009, he said 57 percent of inmates discharged had drug and alcohol treatment needs that were not met while they were incarcerated. “So you can see that we have a huge, huge need for treatment beds,” he said. The department predicts the Smart on Crime Project will result in an 11,200-person reduction to the inmate population. The cost saving would offset the spending by the third year and begin resulting in an annual net gain of $123 million to the state after the fifth year, according to a Senate study. “This is by far the best investment and most cost-effective investment,” White said. “And most importantly … it is the most effective in preventing future crimes, keeping families together and keeping people employed.” White acknowledged asking for close to $100 million in new money during a tough budget situation is difficult. But she said legislators could fund the program in a piecemeal fashion and any new spending would help. Read More. |
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