Drug treatment programs feel budget pinch

Budget problems paralyze programs for drug addicts that are among few alternatives to jail or prison time.

By WILLIAM R. LEVESQUE, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 12, 2002

Every day across Florida, judges sentence nonviolent drug addicts to residential programs for rigorous treatment. Often, it's their only alternative to a prison sentence.

But Florida corrections officials this week suspended all new admissions into these state-funded programs because of the state's continuing budget crisis.

Florida Department of Corrections officials sent a memo to judges and drug treatment providers across the state on Wednesday ordering the suspension. Officials plan to meet Monday to assess the full impact of budget shortfalls and determine just how prolonged the suspension might be.

Locally, the impending loss of DOC funding is expected to have a dramatic effect on Pinellas County's new drug court and other judges who sentence addicts. Hillsborough and Citrus counties also operate drug courts, and judges everywhere routinely send addicts to treatment.

"This is shutting down drug treatment statewide," said Pinellas-Pasco Public Defender Bob Dillinger. "The short- and long-term effect of this is that it's going to put more people in jail and prison."

Often, treatment at a facility operated by a nonprofit group is a criminal defendant's last shot from the justice system, allowing them to keep jobs, maintain ties with family and avoid prison while staying at a facility where they can be monitored.

A variety of nonprofits provide treatment locally, including Operation PAR and Bridges of America.

"It's a tremendous cut statewide," said Nancy Hamilton, chief operating officer for Operation PAR. "If a drug abuser has the potential to get help to change their ways, it's not going to be available to them anymore."

DOC spokeswoman Debbie Buchanan, reached Friday evening, said she didn't know anything about the drug program cuts. Officials with knowledge of the shortfall could not immediately be reached for comment.

A majority of defendants in Pinellas' drug court are sentenced to outpatient programs operated by some of the same providers. That means defendants get less-vigorous treatment during the day while still living at home.

Pinellas' drug court Judge Lauren Laughlin said she is optimistic that funding for these outpatient programs will remain relatively intact, though others are less certain.

"We're going to be here," the judge said, emphasizing that she didn't think the cuts imperiled the drug court. "I've got too many people doing so well. This is just another speed bump for us."

Dillinger said he worried that even outpatient treatment money will be affected and that word of that might come after Monday's DOC meeting.

Nobody suggests the suspension is permanent. In fact, Hamilton said she hoped it might be lifted after next week. Additional revenue might be available after the end of the fiscal year on June 30, she said.

"It's going to be a bloody meeting on Monday," she said. "The outlook is pretty stark. You can't have a drug court without treatment."

The DOC said in its memo to judges that it failed to secure block grant funding from the Department of Children and Families to replace previous legislative budget cuts for both residential and outpatient programs.

The DOC faces a total of $3.2-million in cuts to residential programs and $2.4-million in outpatient, the memo said.

Dillinger said he feared the cost to the state and society in the long run would be much more severe.

"It's going to put more people in jail and in prison," he said. "People who aren't getting treatment are going to be victimizing more. They steal and rob to get money for drugs if they're not getting treatment."

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