Governor Benson has asked state agencies to cut their spending by an additional 10 per cent.
One way to cut criminal justice costs could be to expand alcohol and drug abuse treatment.
Doctors, prosecutors, judges, parole officers and many legislators agree that treating drug and alcohol addiction is more effective ? and cheaper ? than throwing people in prison.
But treatment programs are among the first to feel the cost-cutting axe.
New Hampshire Public Radio political correspondent John Milne filed this story:
Riley Reagan (ree-gun) was recruited into the alcohol and drug treatment business the hard way.
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I ended up in a number of crimes that escalated ? I never thought I?d get into anything like that ? ended up shooting myself in the leg in the robbery of a Safeway grocery store in Los Angeles. The gun went off, I didn?t even know I?d shot myself. It flashed through my mind, like most alcoholics, I?ve got to cut down on my drinking or I?ll kill somebody.
That incident was in the 1950s. With the fatherly tough love of a Baltimore judge, Reagan?s personal faith and old-fashioned gumption, Reagan cleaned up, sobered up and stayed sober.
Reagan now directs New Hampshire?s Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Rehabilitation.
Criminal justice experts recommend treatment for people like Regan who get in trouble with the law.
And the vast majority of inmates in New Hampshire?s criminal justice system have alcohol and drug abuse problems. Former Commissioner of Corrections Phil Stanley:
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Somewhere between 80 and 90 per cent of all offenders coming into prison have some type of substance abuse problem, whether it be alcohol or drugs, so it is a serious problem. We do not begin to provide adequate numbers of staff ? we have staff who do an excellent program, but we do not have adequate staff to provide adequate substance abuse treatment in prison.
In other words, the support Reagan got 50 years ago may not be available today.
Reagan thinks the best time to intervene is early ? before addiction takes hold.
Merrimack County?s adult diversion program has won statewide praise for its success. Prosecutors and police can refer people who are arrested for nonviolent crimes to a program of close supervision and treatment instead of jail. All entrants are tested for drug use and the majority get some form of detox treatment.
Director Steve Casale says it works for participants:
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They typically do not re-offend. Our latest recidivism studies indicate that graduates of the diversion program, less than 10 per cent are back in the criminal justice system.
But there?s a catch, Casale says:
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There are not a lot of available treatment facilities in the state of New Hampshire. In terms of available treatment facilities, New Hampshire ranks about the bottom across the whole United States.
That treatment shortage also keeps inmates from getting help they need. Corrections Department officials say the lack of resources forces them to pick and choose which inmates to treat. Treatment programs are more scarce at the women?s prison in Goffstown.
Alcohol and drug abuse administrator Riley Reagan says treatment programs could lower medical bills as well as prison costs.
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I think we?re putting a lot of money down a rathole by treating an individual with a broken leg who was intoxicated when they had their accident ? by treating some one with a liver problem ? by having a kid with an overdose ? it costs $40-thousand dollars in a hospital just to treat his overdose. We could have treated that same kid for $3 thousand dollars and put him back into society.
Yet some treatment programs in the state, even some with national reputations, have closed.
Legislators, counselors and corrections officials have been holding meetings this fall to consider ways of improving treatment to enhance public safety.
But at one of these meetings last month, nearly every one agreed that treatment was more effective ? and cheaper ? than building new prisons. Yet there were few volunteers to take the lead in arguing for the change.
Riley Reagan:
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New Hampshire is in dire need of educational systems, of giving visibility to the alcohol and drug issues. And that?s perhaps the greatest need in this state, is to get you to understand that your neighbor may have a drinking problem and that there are resources available for that person.
Reagan acknowledges that there?s a waiting list for those resources.
Reagan says the current budget cuts half a million dollars was cut from the office of alcohol and drug abuse. That?s one dollar out of every six.
For N-H-P-R News, this is John Milne
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