Ritter to Sign Drug Bill (1352, decreases some penalties)
Drug bill awaiting governor's signature puts focus on treatment, not punishment | coloradoan.com | The Coloradoan
A sentencing-reform bill on Gov. Bill Ritter??s desk will shift the focus for some drug offenders in Colorado from punishment to treatment.
House Bill 1352 also would mandate savings expected to be incurred from fewer criminals spending time behind bars be used to pay for rehabilitation treatment programs and efforts.
The proposal lowers penalties for those facing charges for use or possession of drugs, but increases consequences for anyone who deals drugs to kids.
??In terms of those who have possession-related offenses, evidence-based practices have shown that warehousing them does not solve the problem,? said bill sponsor Rep. Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs. ??The reason I ran House Bill 1352 was to put more dollars toward treat-ment in order to reduce the recidivism that is all-too common in the system. It??s just a better use of our resources to treat the addiction problem as opposed to just putting them in jail.?
Passing through both the House and Senate with widespread support, the bill is seen as a positive step toward saving bed space in jails and prisons. The bill will likely be signed by Ritter next week and will go into effect in August.
According to a legislative fiscal note analyzing the impact of the bill, the Department of Corrections is expected to save more than $54 million during the next five years.
DOC spokeswoman Katherine Sanguinetti said because more drug offenders will be charged with misdemeanors instead of felonies, it??s estimated there will be 583 fewer state inmates between the fiscal year beginning in 2011 and the one ending in 2015.
But Larimer County District Attorney Larry Abrahamson said if the bill is signed, its most significant impact is its focus on increased treatment.
??This was one of the main reasons I, and many of the other district attorneys around the state, supported the change,? he said.
He added: ??There may be an impression that the law en-forcement community that supported this legislation is giving up on our fight against drug use and abuse, and in particular backing away from illegal marijuana possession and use. This is far from the truth? The new emphasis on treatment while still providing a criminal sanction if viola-tions occur, gives us more than we currently have.?
Paul Christenson, a program director at Turning Point Center for Youth & Family Development in Fort Collins, has worked with and treated drug-abusers for years. He said that in his experience, rehabilitation and education programs are much more effective alternatives to ending substance abuse.
??I??ve seen it countless times where nonviolent drug offenders will return to jail because they fall back into their habits,? Christenson said. ??1352 will take drug reform in the right direction because it recognizes substance abuse for what it is. If these people just go to prison, then they??re not going to receive the treatment that they need for their disease. Substance abuse is an illness and needs to be treated as an illness and not just punished.?
Abrahamson said judges in the Eighth Judicial District, which serves Larimer and Jackson counties, already make efforts to sentence drug offenders to treatment pro-grams when appropriate. He said punitive sentences still have value.
??The threat of punishment is often necessary to keep people motivated to work on their addiction,? Abrahamson said. ??Many of those who have been successful have cited the alternative consequence of jail as a key motivator to keeping them in the program.?
Reporter Joshua Espinoza contributed to this report.
