A study on California's Proposition 36, which offers minor drug offenders treatment rather than incarceration, finds that about one in four offenders never show up for treatment, the Los Angeles Times reported April 1.

The report from UCLA concluded that, despite its flaws, Prop 36 has saved the state of California $2.50 for every $1 spent; more than $600 million has been spent on the program since it was approved by voters in 2000.

UCLA researchers tracked almost 100,000 defendants who have been referred to Prop 36. They found that about half of offenders failed to complete their court-ordered treatment, leading critics to charge that defendants are taking advantage of the program. Police say they are spending more time arresting drug offenders.

Prop 36 allows offenders three chances at treatment before they can be sent to prison. "Every time I'd get arrested ... [I knew] I've got three more chances coming to jail," said drug offender Alexander Santillan.

"For the lay voter, I'm sure they thought, 'If you build it they will come,' and that you would have close to probably a 75 percent or higher success rate," said Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Ana Maria Luna. "We just haven't seen that anywhere in the state."

The UCLA researchers, however, found that 78 percent of offenders who did complete treatment remained drug-free a year afterwards, and 59 percent had gotten jobs. "Most people in recovery will have a relapse," said David Pating, president of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, a Prop 36 supporter. "Isn't California fed up with our prisons being overcrowded?"

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tried to give judges more authority to impose short jail terms on Prop 36 offenders who skip treatment or continue to use drugs, but so far has been blocked in court. Supporters of the program say the answer is not more penalties, but more availability of treatment beds.

Schwarzenegger last year added $25 million to the Prop 36 treatment budget, but this year is proposing to cut $25 million. "Voters wanted first-time nonviolent offenders to get treatment, not jail time," a spokesperson for the governor said.  "If they're not getting treatment, then the governor believes that appropriate sanctions would include incarceration."

"We're at a critical juncture," said Dave Fratello, one of Proposition 36's authors.  "With every year of declining results, you'll see reduced funding and hostile changes to the program. It'll become unrecognizable."

The UCLA researchers recommended that repeat offenders be better supervised or moved out of Prop 36, saying that a small group of miscreants are costing the state and the program a lot of money. "Some people, quite frankly, don't belong in Prop.  36," said researcher Angela Hawken. "They're going to fail. They're going to keep failing. We're wasting our money. And we're really ...  putting our community in jeopardy by having them on the streets."