The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

The vote, in the waning hours of the legislative session that concluded early Saturday, comes as the prison grapples with a rising inmate population and adds Rhode Island to a growing list of states where lawmakers have mulled changes to their sentencing policies.

“I'm overjoyed and thankful,” Sen. Harold Metts, the bill's primary sponsor and a religious volunteer at the Adult Correctional Institutions in Cranston, said Monday. “I thank God.”

The legislation repeals minimum sentences imposed for drug crimes and also reduces the maximum punishment an offender can receive. Under the bill, for instance, a defendant convicted of possessing more than one kilogram of heroin, or more than five kilograms of marijuana, would no longer face a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison.

“It would give the judges discretion,” Metts said. “Certainly in the late teens, early 20s, people do make mistakes. It shouldn't mean that your life is over.”

It's not clear how much impact the bill would have on the inmate population — which surged earlier this month to a record-high of 3,889 — since most drug offenders in Rhode Island already receive relatively short prison sentences. In 2006, the average sentence for a drug offense was 20 months, with only 6 inmates getting sentences of 10 years or more, according to data provided by the state Department of Corrections.

The department says the data is based on individuals who are sentenced on any drug crimes that are not possession offenses, and it doesn't reflect the drug quantity.

Even so, many inmates who initially serve brief terms behind bars ultimately end up back in prison on probation violations, said Mimi Budnick, an organizer with the advocacy group Direct Action for Rights and Equality, who believes the new approach would help with overcrowding.

“The long probation sentences are a huge part of the problem,” she said.

Critics say mandatory minimum practices are ineffective, lead to excessive prison terms and strip the nuances from sentencing decisions in favor of a one-size-fits-all approach.

“People have this idea that it's about targeting these major traffickers,” said Bill Piper, director of national affairs at the Drug Policy Alliance, an advocacy group that opposes mandatory minimum sentences.

“But in reality, it's low-level people, people who have their own drug problems,” he added.

Many states have contemplated changing their sentencing structures, either by rolling back mandatory minimums or altering their sentencing guidelines, said Laura Sager, the national campaign director for Families Against Mandatory Minimums.

Michigan, in particular, has made dramatic reforms by eliminating mandatory minimum sentences and allowing early parole eligibility for certain drug offenders, Sager said. Other states have recently mulled changes, though with varied results.

In Maryland, Gov. Martin O'Malley vetoed a bill last month that would have allowed twice-convicted drug dealers the possibility of parole — instead of a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence. The Delaware House has passed a bill easing that state's mandatory minimum drug law, but the Senate has not taken it up.

In Rhode Island, Republican Gov. Don Carcieri said last week the state must find ways to safely reduce the inmate population. He has not said whether he would sign or veto Metts' bill, although Democrats hold a veto-proof majority in both chambers.

“I haven't even seen it, so I don't want to comment,” the governor said before the vote.
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New drug treatment slots readied for parolees
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
By Elizabeth Gudrais

Providence Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE — When the state budget won final passage last week, despite the governor’s veto, lawmakers declared it a major victory that they were able to earmark $1 million for drug treatment for parolees in the same budget year they had to close a $300-million deficit. But setting aside the money was only half the battle.

The state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals must now determine how to spend the money, and it isn’t as simple as figuring out how many treatment slots $1 million will buy.

Department Director Ellen R. Nelson says she wants to make sure the money is spent in a thoughtful way that maximizes its impact. To that end, Nelson wants to work with the Department of Corrections and the Parole Board to assess the number and types of slots needed, and consult treatment providers about the best way to use the money.

Nelson emphasized that she doesn’t intend to “plan the thing to death,” and hopes the state can buy the additional slots and have them available this fall. “I think we’re going to take a very short and intensive period to analyze the need and the options, and then move forward expeditiously,” she said yesterday. “We’re optimistic that we can do this quickly.”

Neil A. Corkery, executive director of the Drug and Alcohol Treatment Association of Rhode Island, lauded Nelson’s openness to providers’ input, but also urged the state to make the treatment slots available as soon as possible. “There are loads of people who could benefit from this immediately,” he said.

The state prison population reached an all-time high of 3,889 earlier this month, and next year’s budget includes nearly $100 million for prisons. Corrections officials have said 70 percent of inmates at the Adult Correctional Institutions have problems with drug or alcohol abuse, and some inmates who qualify for parole are spending an extra three to four months in prison — at an average per-person cost of $39,000 a year — because there are no open drug-treatment slots and treatment is a condition of their parole. House Finance Committee Chairman Steven M. Costantino, D-Providence, and Senate Majority Leader M. Teresa Paiva Weed, D-Newport, spearheaded the push to include the additional treatment money.

Nelson said her “preliminary assumption” is that $1 million is not enough to meet the demand and ensure that drug treatment is immediately available to parolees who need it, but it is enough to make a big dent in the problem.

Residential treatment for an adult costs $54.83 a day, and the average stay in the program is between 6 and 9 months, so the treatment typically costs $10,000 to $15,000.

The Department of Corrections estimates that there are 35 people at the ACI who could be paroled, but are waiting for a bed to open up in a residential treatment program. Parolees typically need residential, as opposed to outpatient, treatment because the structured setting drastically reduces their chances of regressing into active drug use and ending up back in prison, those involved said.

But people generally don’t go straight from residential treatment to living on their own with no treatment whatsoever, and the intermediate steps carry a cost, too. Outpatient treatment costs $10.47 a day, and the average stay in the program is 12 weeks. Narcotic maintenance — treatment with methadone, a synthetic drug used to quell cravings for heroin and other opiates — costs $7.95 per person per day, but people stay in the program for years.

In all, the state spends $14.5 million a year on contract slots in drug treatment programs. Less than $100,000 of that comes from a federal grant; the rest is state money.

Nelson said about 4 percent of the slots are generally open at a given time, but people — especially parolees — end up waiting for residential treatment beds because many of the residential facilities place restrictions on who can stay there. Some facilities are for men only or women only; some won’t accept people with a history of violent crime.

Nelson said those concerns will enter into the process, as her department tries to determine what type of beds it needs and to get providers to create them if they don’t exist. Workers will also need to be hired and trained, and Nelson said the state may need to consider raising the rates it pays providers.

Above all, Nelson called the additional money a positive accomplishment in what was, in many ways, a grim budget year. “People understand this is a critical component that can’t be left unattended,” she said. “It has a negative economic impact as well as terrible social consequences.”

http://www.projo.com/news/content/drug_treatment_beds_06-26-07_JI6594L.330d648.html#