August 19, 2003
State: Drug offenses responsible for prison population "bulge"
According to the Tribune, Florida says that an increase in prisoners is due to more drug offenders being locked up. Do we really want to spend millions of dollars locking up non-violent drug “criminals”? This quote strikes me as rather incredible:
McDonough, director of the state's Office of Drug Control Policy, notes most people sent to prison for drug crimes are dealers, not small-time users who could be helped by treatment.
A quick look around the My Florida web site reveals that statistics are not broken down, at least for the public, in such a way as to differentiate between “dealers” and “users,” but it seems to me that there would have to be more buyers than sellers, so it seems logical that there are plenty of just plain users rotting in jail.
Nearly 3,000 prisoners were locked up in June, the largest number of new inmates in a single month in Florida in more than a decade.
The bulge in the state prison population, which caught officials by surprise, was largely driven by more people being imprisoned for drug crimes, according to state Department of Corrections figures.
The immediate problem - a looming lack of bed space - may have been resolved last week when Gov. Jeb Bush signed an emergency measure shifting more than $65 million from reserves into prison construction.
But officials are starting to question what is causing such a large and unexpected spike in prison admissions while, as politicians are quick to point out, the crime rate has dropped to record lows.
With drug crimes causing about a quarter of the new admissions, some advocates for drug treatment are pointing to cuts in spending on treatment programs for prisoners and people who otherwise might go to prison, suggesting they're at least partly to blame.
``There is little substance abuse treatment available to offenders,'' John Daigle, executive director of the Florida Alcohol and Drug Abuse Association, said Monday.
That’s $65 million in no-bid contracts for OFFaL’s (Our Fearless Florida Leader) cronies, and 3,000 more citizens who will not be able to vote in the next election.
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