‘Prison does not help a drug addict'
‘Prison does not help a drug addict'
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8
By Josh Rabe
Published: September 30, 2007
TAHLEQUAH — Miller Ballard leaned over to kiss his girlfriend one last time, told her he loved her, and then fired a .38 caliber hollow point into his brain.
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‘A lot more treatment'
"If we can get things the way I would like, people would get a lot more treatment and a lot less time in prison,” said Marci Sims, who spent a year in a prison boot camp, then started using meth again after her release.
Both Ballard and Sims found an alternative to traditional punishment they say helped them get off drugs for good. Judges and prosecutors agreed to sentence them to in-patient treatment programs rather than prison.
It's an option most courts have had since 2000, when Oklahoma passed the Community Sentencing Act, which allows state funding to be spent on treatment programs before resorting to prison time.
The program isn't as well known as other forms of alternative sentencing like drug and mental health courts that have seen more attention and more funding in recent years, but a recent report shows community sentencing is proving effective, said Sharon Neumann, deputy director of community sentencing.
Almost 90 percent of participants in the program haven't committed another offense within three years of completing a community sentence, Neumann said.
That rate is far better than the recidivism rate for prison inmates. Oklahoma's prison system has a three-year recidivism rate of about 25 percent, said Jerry Massie, spokesman for the Department of Corrections.
The offender treatment cost under the program averages about $1,700. Sending someone to prison costs more than $17,000 per year, Massie said.
"Any type of alternative sentencing is going to have a better rate of non-recidivism than incarceration,” said Bob Ravitz, chief public defender for Oklahoma County.
An attitude change
Ravitz said the attitude toward nonviolent criminals has changed in Oklahoma County since David Prater became district attorney earlier this year. Prosecutors seem more willing to get criminals into programs that can reform their behavior instead of trying to get them locked up, he said.
"If it's a person who could be a risk to the community, we won't do it,” Ravitz said. "I think we are coming to the realization we can't keep incarcerating all the people we are incarcerating.”
Sims turned to meth in 1998 after her 17-year-old son was killed in a traffic accident and she fell into a deep depression.
"It was a way of self-medicating myself, and I didn't really know where I was headed at the time,” Sims said.
"Meth is such a hard addiction it's hard to stop, but I think they got it pretty much stomped out of me.”
Ballard turned to meth after a bitter divorce, and he soon discovered making the drug could be lucrative, but almost impossible to quit.
Ballard has been off drugs for more than four years after being treated through community sentencing. He and his wife, who also went through the program, married in June, and Ballard regained custody of his children. He is currently taking carpentry classes and hopes one day to own his own business.
"I was glad to see this legislation come about,” said Cathy Stocker, an Enid-based district attorney. "It was the first time in all the years I've been a prosecutor that money was made available through the state to address some of the problems these offenders have.”
People with assault and theft charges also have also participated in the program. Almost 3,000 people are participating now in 61 counties.
Related Topics:
Law, Health and Fitness, Criminal Sentencing and Punishment, Prisons, Criminal Law, Mental Health, Addiction and Recovery
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Thanks to the legislature we are raising the next generation of no-hope addicts. Great job with the "tough-on-crime" stance, eh?
Thanks to Ex-Governor Keating the prison/corrections complex is thriving in this state. Call your reps.
here.