Proposition 36 Seen Working to Fight Addiction December 3, 2002
News Summary
The first progress report on California's Proposition 36 found that the initiative -- which emphasizes treatment instead of jail -- is helping individuals recover from alcohol and other drug addiction, the Los Angeles Daily News reported Nov. 26.According to the report, since July 2001, when the law was implemented, 80 percent of the 8,329 drug offenders referred to Proposition 36 programs actually enrolled in treatment and were active participants. The remaining 20 percent either didn't go to treatment or failed.
"In terms of being able to move large numbers of people into treatment, it's doing well," said Los Angeles Judge Ana Maria Luna, chairwoman of the Proposition 36 Implementation Task Force. "More than 20 percent of the people are hard-core addicts who we are losing before getting them into treatment. But people are not jamming the court system by insisting on going to trial and then getting into Proposition 36."
The task force plans to track the 60 people who completed their treatment and had charges against them dropped. "By this time next year, we should have a better idea of recidivism because we'll have a bigger population of people who have completed the program," Luna said.
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