CORA's aims noteworthy

Salt Lake County's Day Reporting Center is an approach that makes good sense. Instead of housing nonviolent misdemeanor offenders in the county jail — at a cost of $72 a day — inmates who meet eligibility requirements will instead undergo outpatient substance abuse treatment. To start, these inmates will check in daily at the Day Reporting Center to ensure they are following their treatment plan and other program requirements.

The ultimate goal is to rid offenders of the substance abuse issues that contribute to their criminal activities and other social problems. This, in turn, should help them mend their lives and save taxpayer resources.

The center is the core of the County Offender Reform Act, which is a smaller-scale version of the state Drug Offender Reform Act or DORA, which was funded on a pilot basis by the Utah Legislature. CORA deals with low-level offenders whose criminal behaviors may escalate if their drug and/or alcohol abuse problems are not addressed.

Thus far, 45 offenders have been taken from the Salt Lake County Jail and placed in the program, which includes group therapy, life-skills classes, job development as well as substance-abuse treatment. Thus far, one offender has breached his agreement, and a warrant for his arrest has been issued.

We hope the vast majority of these offenders will seize upon this opportunity to undergo substance abuse treatment, address other issues in group therapy, learn to better manage their lives and obtain steady employment. These skills would go a long way toward ensuring they will have no further involvement with the criminal justice system.

For taxpayers, CORA has considerable financial advantages over incarceration. This style of supervision will cost about $10 a day per offender, and it gives judges more sentencing options. We look forward to a program evaluation in coming months to ascertain this program's effectiveness.

It's critical to attack substance abuse issues considering that one state estimate suggests 80 percent of people in Utah prisons and jails have a foundational drug problem that likely drove them to commit their respective crimes. Among women, the number jumps to 90 percent. Treating addiction as a public health issue seems a smarter approach than simply locking up offenders until they serve their sentences.

Absent treatment, it is likely that low-level offenders will become repeat offenders. CORA and DORA are promising means to interrupt the revolving-door cycle.