Sent this date to: dick.kravitz@myfloridahouse.gov
cc: Charlie.Crist@MyFlorida.com
Honored Legislators
As one who is not dead or in prison today as result of the success of substance abuse programming I can not emphasize enough the mistake the legislature would be making by cutting substance abuse programming and probation officer postions from the budget. The long term consequences of such an act would only insure that corrections costs would increase dramatically thus sabotaging the goal of saving the state money, rebuilding lives and insuring the public safety.
Let me take a moment to share a few facts with you:
# "The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 738 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Russia (611), St Kitts & Nevis (547), U.S. Virgin Is. (521), Turkmenistan (c.489), Belize (487), Cuba (c.487), Palau (478), British Virgin Is. (464), Bermuda (463), Bahamas (462), Cayman Is. (453), American Samoa (446), Belarus (426) and Dominica (419). "However, more than three fifths of countries (61%) have rates below 150 per 100,000. (The rate in England and Wales - 148 per 100,000 of the national population - is above the mid-point in the World List.)"
Source: Walmsley, Roy, "World Prison Population List (Seventh Edition)" (London, England: International Centre for Prison Studies, 2007), p. 1.
Recently the Pew Center on the state released the following:
Washington, DC - 02/28/2008 - For the first time in history more than one in every 100 adults in America are in jail or prison—a fact that significantly impacts state budgets without delivering a clear return on public safety. According to a new report released today by the Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project
In addition, one in every 53 adults in their 20s is behind bars;
Adam Gelb, director of the Public Safety Performance Project said, “For all the money spent on corrections today, there hasn’t been a clear and convincing return for public safety.”
A much respected Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey (USA, Ret.), Director, ONDCP, in his Keynote Address, Opening Plenary Session, National Conference on Drug Abuse Prevention Research, National Institute on Drug Abuse, September 19, 1996, Washington, DC, on the web at http://www.nida.nih.gov/MeetSum/CODA/Keynote2.html last accessed May 25, 2007. Had this to say:
# "We must have law enforcement authorities address the issue because if we do not, prevention, education, and treatment messages will not work very well. But having said that, I also believe that we have created an AMERICAN GULAG.”
Our failure in Florida to do more than pay lip service to Substance Abuse Treatment as one of the most effective rehabilitative, and therefor cost effective, tools we have available to us has brought us to the situation we currently face in our prison system. California learned this lesson and summarized their experience as follows:
“As a result of this review, the Office of the Inspector General found a multitude of reasons to explain the failure of the programs, nearly all of which begin and end with poor management by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and the Office of Substance Abuse Programs. One central finding is that even though the contracts between the state and the in-prison providers require contractors to use the “therapeutic community” substance abuse treatment model, the Office of Substance Abuse Programs not only fails to hold providers accountable for fulfilling that requirement, but also fails to create the conditions that would allow the therapeutic community model to operate. As a result, many of the providers fall far short of delivering therapeutic community programs. University of California, Los Angeles researchers concluded after one study, in fact, that the in-prison programs reflect a therapeutic community “in name only.”
www.oig.ca.gov/reports/pdf/SubstanceAbusePrograms.pdf
Yet New York State, once having one of the largest prison populations in the country, by adopting a more emphatic approach to substance abuse programming now finds itself faced with the problem of which prisons it may have to CLOSE!
With a declining state prison population resulting in part from a sustained, overall drop in crime, New York plans to close the Pharsalia and Gabriels correctional camps, the medium security Hudson Correctional Facility and Camp McGregor, the minimum security camp at Mt. McGregor Correctional Facility, in January 2009.
Besides the drop in crime, the population decline can be attributed to implementation of appropriate early release programs mandated by the Legislature for non-violent offenders, including Shock Incarceration, Work Release, Comprehensive Alcohol and Substance Abuse Treatment, Willard Drug Treatment programs, Merit Time, and Rockefeller Drug Law reform, which included Supplemental Merit Time. Combined, those legislative changes have resulted in the release of 87,528 inmates through 2007 on average 8.4 months earlier than had the laws remained unchanged.
http://www.docs.state.ny.us/PressRel/prisonclosure.html
The plain truth is we can not continue to operate as we have been because we will not be able to afford as evidenced by the following:
1. Our prison systems are not working. Even if you were of the mindset that the best way to deal with crime is to lock up the perpetrators and throw away the key. We are fast approaching the point where economically we simply can not afford them.
# States spent $42.89 billion on Corrections in 2005 alone. To compare, states only spent $24.69 billion on public assistance.
Source: National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO), 2005 State Expenditure Report (Washington, DC: NASBO, Fall 2006), p. 35, Table 18, and p. 58, Table 32.
# Since the enactment of mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users, the Federal Bureau of Prisons budget has increased by 1,954%. Its budget jumped from $220 million in 1986 to more than $4.3 billion in 2001.
Sources: US Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1996 (Washington DC: US Department of Justice, 1997), p. 20; Executive Office of the President, Budget of the United States Government, FY 2002 (Washington DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), p. 134.
# "Despite the investment of more than $5 billion for prison construction over the past decade, the prison system is currently operating at 32 percent over rated capacity, up from 22 percent at the end of 1997. These conditions could potentially jeopardize public safety."
Sources: Executive Office of the President, Budget of the US Government, Fiscal Year 2002 (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 2001), p. 134.
I hope you can see the mistake the state of Florida is contemplating. As one who has not only benefited from substance abuse treatment but in the past worked in prisons to provide programming I can tell you it works. To adopt any other approach would be short sighted and result in severe economic consequences.
Respectfully
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