Prop. 36 promised ‘mass treatment’ for defendants; here’s how it’s going

Prison cells once used at the California Institution for Men in Chino Photo courtesy of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation This story was originally published by CalMatters Sign up for their newsletters It s been nearly a year since Californians overwhelmingly approved Proposition a tough-on-crime measure providing what backers called mass medication for those facing certain drug charges But sparse defendants have detected a clear path to recovery under the law according to new information disclosed by the state Prop gave prosecutors the ability to charge people convicted of various third-time drug offenses with a so-called treatment-mandated felony which would give them a choice between behavioral soundness medicine or up to three years in jail or prison If they accept they would enter a guilty or no contest plea and begin therapy Those who complete therapy have their charges dismissed In the first six months since the law took effect roughly people have been charged with a treatment-mandated felony according to the first-of-its-kind review circulated this month by the state s Judicial Council Nearly or people elected recovery So far of the people placed into cure completed it The material reflects how different counties are using the law with the highest number of treatment-mandated felonies charged in Orange County at Kings and Napa counties each had one such charge San Diego County accounted for roughly one-third or of cases in which defendants chose to pursue medicine but did not account how various were placed into restoration or completed it The summary notes that this missing content contributes to a substantial portion of the drop-off in regards to the overall number of people who elected remedy but have not yet been placed Francine Byrne director of criminal justice services at the Judicial Council announced counties are still figuring out how to implement the law and in plenty of jurisdictions it can take people a while to opt-in to healing as they move through the court process It s not acceptable that so insufficient people are veritably going into restoration disclosed Jonathan Raven an executive at the California District Attorneys Association which supported the measure The goal of this ballot measure was to take that population of people who have a substance use disorder and get them help find them a pathway out of the criminal justice system and dismiss their cases And that doesn t seem to be what s happening across the state Raven noted that district attorneys have been trying to implement Prop based on the will of the voters but have been doing it with one hand tied behind their back The measure did not include dedicated funding when voters passed it which was one of the reasons why Gov Gavin Newsom opposed the measure Behavioral soundness experts have long sounded the alarm over the lack of behavioral healthcare cure and staffing across California but proponents argued that Prop would be the great forcing function for the state to scale up healing Since the law passed Republican and Democratic state lawmakers requested upwards of million annually to implement it Newsom and the Legislature ultimately approved a one-time state budget allocation of million On top of that Newsom last month revealed that the state had awarded million in grant funding to build more behavioral wellness healing maximum Those funds were made available through Proposition a voter-approved measure that reduced the penalties for certain non-violent drug and property crimes and stipulated that the resulting savings would be used for among other things substance use disorder and mental physical condition recovery None of that funding was available during the time period associated with the record which looked at matter counts between Dec and April Kate Chatfield executive director of the California Population Defenders Association reported the input proves that Prop is a fail not because people are medication resistant but because rehabilitation is not available There s no indication that anything will change she explained Meanwhile proponents are spending precious county guidance on prosecution and incarceration in local jails and saying magically particular money will appear for recovery Proponents are the ones preventing those information from being spent on healing Cayla Mihalovich is a California Local News fellow CalMatters is a nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization bringing Californians stories that probe explain and explore solutions to quality of life issues while holding our leaders accountable