California's groundbreaking treatment-over-incarceration law is being underfunded and needlessly tinkered with by state lawmakers, supporters of the initiative say.

The Oakland Tribune reported March 8 that the Drug Policy Alliance and the Campaign for New Drug Policies held a teleconference to slam Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget plan for Proposition 36. Schwarzenegger's budget calls for $120 million for the program  -- which sends low-level drug offenders to addiction treatment rather than prison -- but ties funding to legislative reforms that include giving judges the power to jail offenders who don't comply with treatment mandates.

The groups said that the program should receive $20-80 million more to keep up with inflation and growing demand for treatment, and maintained that allowing judges to jail offenders violates the intent of the law.

"We have 140,000 people who have received treatment in four years, but the big news is over 60,000 graduated from their treatment programs by the fourth year," said Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg (D-Los Angeles), a Prop 36 sponsor. Other Democrats, however, are supporting the governor's "flash incarceration" plan.

A spokesperson for California's Department of Finance noted that Prop 36 funding is slated to sunset in June, and that Schwarzenegger is giving the initiative a show of support with his budget proposal. "The governor does believe that this is an important program," but wants to see more participants graduating successfully from treatment, said spokesman H.D. Palmer.

A cost-benefit analysis of the program is due from UCLA on April 1. Dave Fratello, the co-author of the law, said Prop 36 has cut the number of inmates in state prisons for drug possession by 32 percent. "We're confident that every dollar we're talking about here will be recouped," he said.