Lawmakers find no funds to reform drug offenders

If DORA were a person, she'd be on the emergency room table.

Lawmakers didn't fund a program aimed at rehabilitating drug offenders Monday as they put together what will likely be the last spending bill of this session.

"It's the dumbest thing I've ever seen," Sen. Chris Buttars, R-West Jordan, said after both the House and the Senate GOP caucuses declined to come up with some $6 million for SB22, the Drug Offender Reform Act.

Buttars, who sponsored the act, said the program would have saved the state millions of dollars by keeping drug offenders from returning to prison. Now, he said, more jail beds will be needed.

DORA appeared to be backed by almost every branch of government as a way to take Utah's justice system in a different direction when it comes to dealing with the state's growing illegal drug-abuse problem.

Buttars had tried unsuccessfully for the past two years to pass the bill. Each time, it came close, but funding was always an issue.

Senate President John Valentine, R-Orem, said he had hoped to find funding for the program.

"For some of the things we find success for, there are some we can't. And we always feel bad about that. DORA was one personally that I really felt I wanted to do," Valentine said. "But we don't have the ability to do it this year. I expect it'll be back."

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. has "always been supportive of the program," his chief of staff, Jason Chaffetz, said. "The question has always been funding. But if it were to make it to the governor's desk, he would sign it."

DORA would create a system in which first-time, non-violent drug offenders would be diverted from doing jail time to be placed in intensive drug treatment.

With more than 80 percent of those in prison having a foundational drug addiction, experts in drug treatment said DORA could lead to a direct reduction in crime.

Glen Lambert, director of the drug treatment center Odyssey House in Salt Lake City, said he's disappointed that the Legislature would choose roads over one of the most profound societal problems.

"They spoke of it as a prioritization, but if it was a priority, then they would have funded it," Lambert said. "The direct correlation to society's cost are such things as increased crime, increased homelessness, increased domestic violence and child abuse . . . and all those negative effects continue to escalate if they don't successfully fund this adequately."