A question of risk « Prisonmovement's Weblog





In 2000, Californians passed the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act, or Proposition 36, with a strong 61 percent of the vote. California’s law went into effect in 2001 following the example of a similar successful treatment program Arizona started in 1996. Proposition 36 gives nonviolent drug offenders an option to go into treatment instead of jail. The state originally pumped $120 million annually into the program through the 2005-06 fiscal year. And the program works.

Annual studies by the University of California at Los Angeles found conclusive data that Proposition 36 treatment successfully curbed repeat drug offenses by people who completed the program. Graduates from the program are less likely to commit crimes, the research showed, and the state saves millions of dollars by treating offenders instead of sending them to jail or prison.

But the economy went south and the state budget began to tank. First the Proposition 36 budget was reduced from $120 million to $100 million. Last year, the budget was further reduced to $90 million. This year, the funding was eliminated completely and no one knows whether it will be funded again.

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The last of all freedoms is the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.
G. W. Allport.

Oh no that is such a shame for a successful program to lose it's funding.

That's really sad and short sighted. The more I hear about California budget woes the less sorry I feel for the state government. We added more funds to our drug rehabilitation program in Florida because it saves money.

Tjames, i too find it hard to understand why they would cut a program when it has been so successful, to me it is so crazy, they are willing to spend millions to incarcerate, but to rehabilitate and work on the PROBLEM/ISSUES??

__________________
The last of all freedoms is the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances.
G. W. Allport.