Drug Diversion Hampered By Budget Cuts
More drug offenders will end up back in prison after budget cuts by the Florida Legislature this week, according to those in charge of a Lee County program chopped by 11 percent.
The Non-Secure Residential Drug Treatment Center, which operated in Fort Myers through a partnership with the Salvation Army and the state Department of Corrections, is losing $80,000. That translates to about six fewer beds in the Edison Avenue facility, bringing the total to 32. “It’s significant,” said Meg Geltner, general manager with the Salvation Army of Lee/Hendry County. “It does not look very promising for us on the whole.”
The program is provided as an alternative for those who violate probation on drug-related charges. For example, if a person is arrested for cocaine possession, put on probation and then caught again with cocaine, they can be sent to the intensive, 60-day treatment center, which is followed by four months in a halfway house, instead of going back to prison. While in treatment, patients not only receive drug and alcohol treatment and counseling, they are placed in jobs and pay their restitution to the state. It costs $12 less per day than the $59 the Department of Corrections reports it costs to house inmates there. “I think it’s ironic, because the cost effectiveness of this program has really shown itself, and when you look at the alternative — treatment vs. prison, gainful employment vs. none — the decision to cut it seems non-sensical,” Geltner said.
Kevin Lewis, executive director of the Southwest Florida Addiction Services and an authority on how addiction affects people, said cutting the program will inevitably mean more inmates clogging the prison system. “Everyone is trying to do more with less these days, but this is like saying, ‘I’m going to save money by not getting an oil change,’” Lewis said. “Yeah, maybe you save a few dollars in the very short term, but when you eventually have to replace your engine, it’s ended up costing you even more money.”
Community Corrections, Drug Treatment & Diversion, FL Lee County, Florida
Inmates can sharpen the edges of the handles of traditional toothbrushes and use them as knives. Wednesday, deputies began swapping out regular toothbrushes for fingertip brushes. Officials … say they are safer because inmates cannot use them as weapons. “We’re taking away the ability of an inmate to manufacture a possible weapon in a correctional setting,” said Sergeant David Valez. Deputies sweep cells everyday looking for contraband and say this is just the first step in reducing crime in jail.