Few funds for parolee drug abuse treatment
By Tim Potter
The Wichita Eagle
Mar. 25, 2007
At the same time that the Kansas Department of Corrections is
emphasizing efforts to help thousands of parolees succeed after
release from prison, it is funding substance abuse treatment for
only a fraction of them.
Although experts say that generally two-thirds of offenders have
a history of substance abuse, the department has provided no
money for community-based substance abuse treatment for two
budget years in a row.
So substance abuse -- one of the biggest problems among
offenders and a threat to public safety -- is receiving some of
the least funding from the department at a time when the
investment might count the most, experts say.
Parolee substance abuse is particularly important to Wichita. A
November 2006 Department of Corrections document titled
"Offender Risk Reduction and Reentry Plan" notes that Wichita has the most parolees and that substance abuse is one of their biggest problems.
As of Monday, there were 5,621 parolees statewide, including
1,317 in Wichita -- and the numbers are generally rising,
because parolees are being sent back to prison at a lower rate
even when they repeatedly violate conditions of their parole,
including the prohibition against drug use.
The department says it has embraced the idea that the best way
to solve parolees' problems is to work with them in the
community, yet for years now it has cut programs to help
offenders prepare for release and succeed afterward.
In any effort to help parolees survive life after prison,
substance abuse treatment after prison has "got to be key," said
Ron Iacovetta, a Wichita State University associate professor
who studies corrections issues.
For many offenders, substance abuse is "the ingredient that
triggered a lot of crime to begin with," Iacovetta said.
Peter Ninemire spent 10 years in federal prison for marijuana
cultivation, then went on to earn a master's degree and now
works as a substance abuse counselor in Wichita. Ninemire said
treatment in the community is crucial because outside prison is
"where the rubber meets the road."
It's in the community where released convicts encounter
obstacles, stresses and bad influences, Ninemire said. "Anybody
can talk a good game in prison," he said, because there is so
much structure there.
Police say drug addiction is what drives many offenders to break
into homes and steal things. And it figures heavily in domestic
violence, one of the most common crimes with one of the widest
impacts on society.
But the sad irony, Ninemire said, is some people think that
treating parolees' drug and alcohol addictions is soft on crime
when in fact it is "the best anti-crime tool that we have."
Iacovetta said the department's budget is "a clear indication so
far that they're not appropriating the funds to deal with the
problem."
"To say they're doing it, and to end up doing it, is actually
two different things," he said."... It takes money first."
Five years ago, the Department of Corrections joined a highly
publicized forum at WSU to share its plans for helping parolees
to re-enter communities in ways that helped them and protected
the public. But since then, funding for offender programs -- in
prison and after release from prison -- dropped steeply, then
stayed flat.
The governor's office is proposing the first significant funding
increase in years. There's no guarantee the Legislature will
approve it, although there appears to be support.
The department provided the funding data in response to
questions The Eagle has raised over Alfred Brown, a parolee with
a history of drug abuse who was charged last month with nine
counts of sex crimes against two Wichita girls.
Optimistic outlook
The department head, Secretary of Corrections Roger Werholtz,
said he hopes funding will start improving over the next year
with the increase proposed by the governor's office.
So far, the department has developed and promoted detailed plans
for parolee reintegration, gotten its staff to embrace the
approach and begun reintegration efforts on a pilot basis,
Werholtz said.
Treatment funding has fallen over the past seven years as a
result of painful budget cuts the department made, Werholtz
said.
The department can't restore the money in one year; it will be
sought in phases, Werholtz said.
Department spokesman Bill Miskell said the agency "would like to
have more money" for substance abuse treatment.
Without money set aside to treat parolees, Miskell said, "most
of the offenders who are on supervision in Kansas now who need
evaluation and treatment for substance abuse are accessing the
same limited community resources that many other people are
accessing. Those are limited."
Parolees typically pay for treatment the same way anyone else
does; often it's on a sliding fee scale, said Frances Breyne, a
department spokeswoman.
At the same time, many parolees have difficulty getting and
maintaining jobs. Even paying a $20 treatment fee can be
difficult for them, Ninemire said.
An explanation of the treatment and funding challenge can be
found in a February 2004 document by the Offender Reentry Task
Force, a joint project of the city of Wichita, Sedgwick County
and the Department of Corrections. It notes that in fiscal year
2001, "62 percent of the releasing offenders had received
substance-abuse treatment while in prison. However, due to
budget reductions, the majority of the substance-abuse treatment
available in the prisons has been eliminated....
"Today there are not treatment services available in the
community, beyond very limited transitional therapeutic
community programs... ."
Things have improved since then, Werholtz said, with substance
abuse counseling available at the day reporting center in
Wichita for up to 100 offenders, and at a day reporting center
in Topeka, which treats up to 40 offenders. A Shawnee County
re-entry program provides access to treatment services for up to
50 offenders.
One of the Wichita parolees who was sent to a day reporting
center and received substance abuse counseling is Alfred Brown,
56. According to a parole officer's log and other records,
Brown, who had been convicted of felony drug crimes, tested
positive for cocaine five times within one month in 2005 while
going to the day reporting center. He sporadically attended
treatment, records show. Last month, prosecutors charged Brown
with sex crimes against two girls.
Treatment options
Werholtz also noted other treatment services available in
communities for people needing substance abuse help. One of the
programs is through the Department of Social and Rehabilitation
Services. There is some treatment for motorists who have four or
more DUI offenses. And under a 2003 law, Senate Bill 123, drug
treatment is mandatory for people convicted of drug possession
who have no history of violent crime, but it's not designed for
parolees.
Beverly Metcalf, who heads Mirror Inc., a nonprofit organization
that provides substance abuse treatment and community-based
correctional services across the state, said she worries that
parolees may not be getting treatment because funding has been
cut so much in recent years and because the treatment system has
limited slots.
Metcalf said she wonders if part of a lack of support for
funding is a general misconception that treatment doesn't work.
Ninemire, the former offender who now helps offenders as a
substance abuse counselor, said that, unfortunately, a parolee's
best chance for getting treatment is to get into trouble and be
ordered to the day reporting center or some other treatment
program.
The biggest need, he said, is residential drug treatment, "where
we could give people more than three days in detox... because
many people need longer interventions." Without longer-term
care, he said, "they don't even stand a chance."
Goal is to restore money
According to figures the Department of Corrections provided to
The Eagle, in fiscal year 2005, only $155,071 out of the $29.4
million budget for community-based programs went specifically
for substance abuse treatment.
In fiscal 2006 and in the estimated budget for the current
budget year -- fiscal 2007 -- there was no money budgeted for
substance abuse treatment.
The governor's office has requested $460,000 for fiscal 2008,
and Werholtz said he is optimistic the Legislature will approve
it. A separate proposal would increase funding for prison-based
substance abuse treatment from around $1 million in the current
budget to nearly $1.4 million.
Rep. Michael O'Neal, R-Hutchinson, chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee, agreed that it appears there is legislative
support for more funding.
"We have to step up to the plate and get some funding there, and
I think the timing is right," said O'Neal, who has served on a
task force dealing with corrections issues.
"The best policy is a safe re-entry program," O'Neal said.
It appears that inmates get good support while in prison, he
said.
"What they really need is help on the outside," he said.
In the late 1990s, department figures show, funding rose sharply
for the full range of programs to help offenders prepare for
release and be successful after leaving prison. The programs
included vocational, academic and special education and
treatment for sex offenders and substance abuse.
But starting in fiscal 2001, the funding plummeted before
leveling out in fiscal 2004 through 2007.
Although funding would increase sharply under proposals for
fiscal 2008, even if the money is approved, it would be
significantly below the levels of the late 1990s.
The goal, Werholtz said, is to restore programs that were
gutted.
Reach Tim Potter at 316-268-6684 or tpotter@wichitaeagle.com.