Drug treatment called key to cutting recidivism

The state would be both financially and morally better off if it invested in treatment programs instead of sending criminals back to prison for drug abuse, two Utah government administrators said Monday.

Touting the benefits of the state Drug Offender Reform Act, Michael Sibbett, chairman of the state Board of Pardons and Parole, and Robin Arnold-Williams, executive director of the state Department of Human Services, told the Deseret Morning News Editorial Board the act would reduce the high recidivism rates of addicts — a leading cause of jail overcrowding and irreparable damage to families.

"This is not a liberal, soft-on-crime approach in any perspective," Sibbett said. "It's a smart approach for a problem that keeps digging us deeper and deeper."

The program, which appropriates $17 million in three years to treatment and rehabilitation programs, faltered during the 2004 legislative session because of its initial price tag not because of its merits or potential for long-term savings, Sibbett said.

Every dollar spent improving treatment means $5.60 saved because ultimately fewer parolees would become repeat offenders, Sibbett said. Other savings would come because fewer children would need the help of social services while a parent does time.

"Last year there were 502 children in foster care in Utah because a parent was in prison," Arnold-Williams said.

Of children 5 years-old and younger in foster care, 81 percent have a parent in prison for drug abuse, she said.

And even though most prison inmates have drug abuse problems, the current system can only treat a quarter of them, Sibbett said. "The big reason for violating parole is drug abuse, and society is using prison as an expensive 'detox' center."

This is becoming particularly expensive because the number of women in prison for crimes connected to methamphetamine use is exploding, he said.

"There are soccer moms in prison because they were introduced to a new diet or caffeine pill that turned out to be meth and then they're hooked," he said.

They get it from other women in their neighborhood who have lost 30 pounds and have nonstop energy from their new "diet pill." A week's supply costs as little as $20 and they won't notice there's something wrong until they've gone four or five days without sleeping. By then, they're addicted, he said.

The cravings then consume the abuser, and $20 a week turns into $50 or $75 a day prompting illegal activities to get the money.

"The kids usually end up in social services because of neglect," Arnold-Williams said. "The addicted mothers literally forget to feed and care for their children."

By simply monitoring the abusers after leaving prison the Department of Corrections is not helping them leave their old environment and associations, Sibbett said, noting that without proper treatment and effective transition into normal life, the abusers frequently revert to old behavior and return to overcrowded prisons.

"It's been said, 'We can no longer afford to incarcerate those we're mad at; we can only afford to incarcerate those we're afraid of,' " Sibbett said.

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E-mail: akirk@desnews.com