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June 19, 2006
Help Save Substance Abuse Treatment in California!
Dear FCL Supporter,
In 2000, California voters passed the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act (SACPA) by a margin of 61 percent to 39 percent. The initiative, commonly referred to as "Proposition 36," diverts drug users to treatment instead of prison and has revolutionized the way we think about incarceration. A recent UCLA study indicates that diverting drug users to treatment has saved the state $1 billion and has prevented the construction of an additional prison.
Now opponents are using a shrewd legislative maneuver to undermine SACPA without the benefit of legislative hearings. SB 1137, a budget "trailer" bill, contains provisions to make use of "flash incarceration" and severely under-funds drug treatment.
SB 1137 would enable a judge to sentence people who relapse to short jail terms and severely impact our already overcrowded jails. People addicted to drugs are often unable to achieve total abstinence in the early stages of recovery. Consider the case of a single-parent mother of dependent children who slips and uses drugs while in recovery. She would be deterred from staying in treatment if she knows that a positive drug test would land her in jail and separate her from her children.
Improving SACPA requires adequate funding -- not more incarceration. Under-funding drug treatment enables opponents to claim that treatment does not work. While we need to do more to increase drug treatment completion rates, the answer lies in providing adequate resources, including more methadone treatment and residential drug treatment for people who are severely addicted. SB 1137 provides for $145 million, well short of the $209 million per year that the California Association of Alcohol and Drug Program Executives says is necessary to adequately fund drug treatment.
TAKE ACTION NOW!
Please send letters and make phone calls to your State Assembly Member and State Senator and urge them to reject SB 1137. Tell them that you want adequate funding for drug treatment and that you oppose more incarceration.
To find your State Senator and State Assembly Member's address and phone number, point your web browser to:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/defaulttext.asp and click the "Find My District" link, or call FCL at the phone number below.
Sincerely yours,
Jim Lindburg
Legislative Advocate
http://www.fclca.org
E-mail: JimL@fclca.org
Phone: (916) 443-3734
Fax: (916) 448-6109
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