Bush: Drug Program Cuts Don't Drive Up Prison Admissions (Fla.)

[Nambe]

TALLAHASSEE (AP)

Officials in Gov. Jeb Bush's administration moved aggressively Tuesday to knock down speculation that cuts in drug treatment funding contributed to a spike in the prison admissions, saying anomalies in a few counties are instead to blame.

State prison officials were astonished this summer to see a dramatic jump in the number of new inmates, and the Legislature last week passed an emergency $65 million appropriation to add new bed space.

The increase came a year and a half after an economic downturn forced budget cuts, including cuts for drug treatment programs for prisoners and criminals on probation or other nonprison supervision programs.

The governor, the head of the prison system and the state's top drug abuse official joined together Tuesday in saying they were convinced the budget cuts couldn't have fueled the rise in prison admissions. They were responding to media reports suggesting that drug-addicted criminals who didn't get treatment were being released and returning to their drug habits only to be arrested again. -

[Caution]

1. The insanity of the war on drugs continues to cost Americans

Tax payer dollars, destruction of families (being thrown in prison destroys a family as much or more than drug addiction).

Drug Policy Alliance.

The only people benefiting from the war on drugs are prison workers, the politicians who somehow continue to get votes by saying they are against drugs, and law enforcement officials who continue to get bigger budgets and more resources thrown at them. Did we learn nothing from prohibition? Why can't the government understand the simple rules of supply and demand? Education and treatment are the obvious answers, not incarceration.

[Racenut20]

3. Drug treatment

Ironic isn't it, that right after they cut the funds for drug treatment is when the Governor's daughter was arrested. I guess her treatment center was privately paid for by the family. But that is about all they did for her except her one brouther.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. The "anomalies" have a name

They're called Jeb Bush's appointed conservative judges.

[yellowcanine]

4. Thanks, Jebbie

for clearing that up. Otherwise we might have thought your screwed-up priorities might have something to do with the problem getting worse. It is a relief to know that there is nothing to worry about. Keep up the good work and say hi to Dick Cheney the next time you see him. He is hiding out in Florida, isn't he?

[prolesunited]

5. Talk about a win-win situation

for the BFEE. Not only does this enrich their friends in the prison industry, Florida is one of the states that deprives felons of their voting rights.

[zekeson]

6. Jeb shouldn't be surprised that he has more inmates to house

and I'm certain it doesn't trouble him a bit as I am sure that *Co is fully invested in the whole American idustro-prison complex.

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n144/a02.html
In a state where nearly a third of all crimes are drug-related, the Department of Corrections has approved a budget cut that will eliminate the bulk of drug treatment among inmates and greatly reduce the state's program to help drug addicts outside the prison system.

The cuts -- expected to save Florida taxpayers $13 million this fiscal year - -- will eliminate in-house drug treatment programs at all but four of Florida's 55 major prisons, said Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the Corrections Department in Tallahassee.

The cuts also will reduce by 34 percent the number of beds available to treat drug addicts at 20 residential treatment programs throughout the state.
--snip--
"How foolish, how absolutely foolish," Rosinek said. "Most of these people are coming back to the community; they're coming back home. They'll be in my neighborhood; they'll be in your neighborhood.

"The question is: How are they coming home? Will they be coming back in worse shape than they left? . . . Will they still be addicted?"

You cut the treatment programs in prison and treament programs for non-offenders and then you wonder why your prisons are filling up....
:spank:

[soup]

7. Can't get the link to work,

leads to http: / / x / ?

Wanted to see if this article mentioned the 4,000 new prison beds already signed into the budget by jeb in June.

Wanted to see if it mentioned the 'no bid' contracts being awarded, since bidding just wastes time.

Wanted to see if it mentioned all the programs taking great gouging cuts because jeb broke the state with tax cuts for his rich cronies.

Wanted to see if it mentioned ..... ah, never mind ......

I'm angry enough already.