Turning away from treatment

A CALIFORNIA ballot measure designed to direct funding away from incarceration and toward drug treatment and rehabilitation programs for nonviolent drug users and parolees went down to defeat on Election Day.

Proposition 5, also known as the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA), would have represented a fundamental shift in how to treat drug addiction--from viewing addiction as a crime to be punished with prison terms, to an understanding that addiction is a health problem, and users need to be offered treatment.

Prop 5 also built on the proven success of a previous measure passed in 2000, Prop 36, under which individuals convicted of nonviolent drug possession are sentenced to probation and treatment rather than prison.

Prop 5 was endorsed by the California Society of Addiction Medicine, the California State Conference of the NAACP, the National Council of La Raza, the California Nurses Association, the California Federation of Teachers and the Children's Defense Fund.

It would have reduced the state's massively overcrowded prison system. According to the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO), Prop 5 would have lowered the state prison population by 18,000 and the number of people on parole by 22,000. That would have translated into savings of at least $2.5 billion in prison construction costs, according to the LAO.

Despite its liberal façade, California imprisons more people than any other state. There are currently more than 170,000 inmates crammed into prisons that were built to hold 100,000.

Conditions are so bad that the federal courts have threatened to take over the system. In fact, in 2006--with one inmate a week dying from medical neglect or incompetence, and drug treatment almost non-existent--a U.S. district court judge did take oversight of the prison medical system away from state authorities.

SO WHO would be against legislation to reduce the exploding prison population and give treatment to thousands of drug users?

A bipartisan collection of "tough-on-crime" drug warriors, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Attorney General Jerry Brown, former Govs. Gray Davis and Pete Wilson, actor Martin Sheen and thirty-four district attorneys organized to kill Prop 5.

The first move by Prop 5 opponents was to try to get the measure removed from the ballot, but the California Supreme Court ruled against them. So they whipped up a classic drug war hysteria instead. At a press conference Schwarzenegger warned, "Prop 5 is a great threat to our neighborhoods. It was written by those who care more about the rights of criminals."

These political leaders were backed up with big money from the California prison guards' union, the beer distributors association and gambling interests. Their millions paid for deceitful TV ads designed to shock and scare voters. The commercials claimed that Prop 5 was a "drug dealer's bill of rights" and "a get-out-of-jail-free card," and that it would "let drug dealers, drunk drivers, child abusers, burglars, thieves, con artists and others stay on the streets."

Famed liberal Jerry Brown was one of the most vociferous opponents of Prop 5. He opposed the legislation because it diminished the power of the criminal justice system, which he claimed, outrageously, was necessary for rehabilitation. "We know the hammer of incarceration is often what is needed to assist an addict to get off his dependency," Brown said. "It would be wonderful if 'treatment' in the form of endless talk could overcome the horrible power of addiction. Unfortunately it can't."

Brown is wrong. Decades of research show that drug treatment is effective. Individual and group therapy, methadone maintenance, and prescription medications like Buprenorphine have helped millions of drug users overcome addiction.

The problem is the shortage of drug treatment slots: budget cuts have eliminated whole programs, and wait lists to get into those that are left are notoriously long.

It's worth remembering, too, that Brown's "hammer of incarceration" for illegal drug use and law-breaking doesn't apply to everyone.

When Cindy McCain was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Agency for having prescriptions for narcotics filled in the names of staff members for three years, no charges were filed, and she spent no time in jail or on probation. She got treatment. Both of George Bush's daughters were charged with alcohol-related offenses: underage drinking and fake IDs. They got community service and probation.

In 2000, Al Gore's son was charged with drunk driving, and in 2003, with marijuana possession, but he was able to plea bargain out of it. He was arrested again in 2007 for possession of marijuana as well as medications, including Xanax, Vicodin, and Adderall, without a prescription. He pleaded guilty and went to a 90-day treatment program.

Instead, the "hammer of incarceration" comes down on the poor and people of color who disproportionately fill the prisons of California and across the nation. Drug treatment is always available for the wealthy and well connected, who never have to wait and rarely spend time in prison.

THE PRISON guards union played a particularly pivotal role in the defeat of Prop 5, spending $1.8 million in the last few weeks of the campaign. The prison-building boom and high rates of incarceration have increased the numerical strength and power of the guards union. It now has 31,000 members and an influential lobbying group in Sacramento.

The union has a reputation for getting good pay and benefits for its members, but its true character is revealed by its consistent support for draconian laws like three-strikes-and-you're-out sentencing, and its opposition to progressive reforms like Prop 5 and Prop 36 eight years ago.

In fact, the guards union doesn't care much about the specifics of reform legislation. What matters is whether or not a law or ballot measure would decrease or increase jobs. Thus, Lt. Kevin Peters, a union guard, viewed the impact of California's three-strikes sentencing law this way:

You can get a job anywhere. This is a career. And with upward mobility and rapid expansion of the department, there are opportunities for the people who are [already] correction staff, and opportunities for the general public to become correctional officers. We've gone from 12 institutions to 28 in 12 years, and with three-strikes and the overcrowding, we're going...to need to build at least three prisons a year for the next five years. Each one of these institutions will take approximately 1,000 employees.

Any attempt to make drug laws to more just and humane and to move drug offenders out of the criminal justice system and into community treatment programs will have to take on the propaganda of the prison guards union--and confront the lock-em-up, law and order politicians who use the war on drugs to scapegoat and divide people.

The struggle to end the war on drugs and fund treatment isn't over. As Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which led the campaign for Prop 5, wrote, "I feel energized like never before, and so do my colleagues at the Drug Policy Alliance and our many allies in the growing movement to end the war on drugs. I hope you do, too."