The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

December 17, 2004

News Feature By Bob Curley

A whopping 76 percent of voters in Cook County, Ill. (home to Chicago and surrounding Chicagoland communities) voted "yes" on the ballot question, "Shall the state government provide adequate funding for comprehensive and appropriate substance-abuse treatment for any Illinois state resident requesting services from a licensed provider, community-based organization, or medical-care facility in the state?" The 1.2 million votes cast in favor of treatment on demand were more than Cook County voters cast to successfully return Rod Blagojevich to the governor's mansion and Sen. Dick Durban (R-Ill.) to Congress.

Although non-binding and limited to just one county (albeit the state's largest by far), the ballot question is widely expected to prompt state lawmakers to quickly take steps toward increasing treatment availability in Illinois. "I'm 100-percent confident that this will be translated into some sort of policy," said Brad Olson, Ph.D., an addiction researcher at DePaul University and chair of Citizens Activated to Change Healthcare (CATCH), which spearheaded the campaign to get the question on the ballot. "The extent that we can get true treatment on demand will be a challenge, but that will come over time."

Dogged supporters of treatment and recovery actually snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. The original idea was to get the question on the statewide ballot, but despite the work of more than 700 volunteer petition gatherers -- who got 118,000 Illinois residents to sign -- the drive fell short of the 282,000 signatures needed to get the measure on the state ballot. Next, organizers tried to convince state lawmakers to pass a law enabling the question to be added to the ballot; the House approved the plan, but it stalled in committee in the state Senate.

Organizers didn't give up: instead, they went to the Cook County Board of Commissioners, which had unanimously endorsed the goals of the petition drive. The board met and agreed to place the question on the county ballot for November 2004.

Tremendous Momentum

Tumia Romero, director of public policy and programs for Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), told Join Together that the overwhelming support for addiction services demonstrated by voters in Illinois' most populous and influential county -- which includes many affluent suburbs as well as the urban core of Chicago -- will be almost as influential on policymakers as a statewide question would have been. Romero, who oversees a broad range of community advocacy groups established by Davis' office, including one on addiction, said the election results have generated "tremendous momentum" for improving treatment services.

"I think policymakers can agree that substance abuse is a major issue in the state of Illinois, and we have to find ways to fix it," said Romero. "We're on the verge in Illinois of not just having policymakers looking at treatment on demand, but having people in the system working on it. They feel empowered."

Indeed, Romero and Olson credit grassroots recovery advocates, local religious leaders, and supporters of addiction-related issues (such as advocates for the homeless and people with AIDS) for laying the groundwork for the campaign's success. "It was most impactful to see people who were so proud because they had asked their whole family to sign the petition, and their family was so proud of them for doing something so positive in their lives," said Romero.

In addition to Rep. Davis and the Cook County Commission, a number of prominent local political leaders lent their support to the treatment on demand campaign, including the Chicago City Council, Mayor Richard Daley, and Senator-elect Barack Obama. However, noted CATCH's Olson, "We're trying to get the average person to think differently about recovery. When you talk to people on the streets of Chicago, they almost immediately recognize this is something that needs to be done. In the suburbs, there's a lot of support but also a lot of questions about cost."

In a report issued in support of the ballot question, CATCH argued that Illinois would save $18 for every $1 invested in treatment on demand. Romero acknowledges that the costs of full treatment on demand would be significant -- perhaps $2,500 for each of the one million in state residents believed to need treatment services. But, she adds, the per-person cost is far less than the $35-40,000 needed annually to keep someone in jail.

Treatment-on-demand advocates plan to meet with Gov. Blagojevich soon, and a Jan. 11 Chicago town hall meeting convened by Davis will give the public a chance to weigh in on the issue.

"We don't want a quick shot of money for treatment providers," stressed Olson. "Some of them are suffering, but the key is to focus on more systemic changes. We want more people served."

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