Legislature(1999 - 2000)
04/29/1999 03:05 PM House HES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HCR 11 - SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT FOR OFFENDERS Number 0163 DONALD DAPCEVICH, Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, came forward to present HCR 11 saying they brought this resolution to the attention of the committee early in the session when the Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Advisory Board presented issues around the state. Number 0226 ALICE JOHNSTONE, Legislative Chair, Governor's Advisory Board on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, came forward to present HCR 11 saying about 80 percent of the prisoners are either under the influence of addictive drugs or alcohol at the time of their arrest, or they have that problem, and it related to their offense. Although there is treatment in the prisons for people now, it is not adequate. They would encourage the legislature to establish treatment in all the prisons so that they can address this issue to teach the prisoners how to live a better lifestyle and get unaddicted, so they can be productive citizens when they get out of jail and not have any other violations that would put them back in jail again. She indicated that this will cut down the costs of prisons and incarceration. CO-CHAIRMAN DYSON asked if they have any data from other jurisdictions showing that alcohol treatment in prison really works, and recidivism goes down. Number 0406 MR. DAPCEVICH answered that the most comprehensive study is the Cal-Data study which studied treatment in general, but some of that study extended to the prison system. It is true that there is some reduction in recidivism among inmates who participate in treatment activities while in prison. This resolution calls for looking at what they are doing to make sure that it is addressing the problems and is resulting in lower recidivism. If it doesn't, then they need to change what they are doing. MR. DAPCEVICH noted that they also need to look at the possibility of re-engineering what they do in looking at trading hard beds for soft beds in the prison system. Those soft beds would have concurrent treatment going on. There is already a partnership between the correction system and the advisory board for women's treatment. All the women in need of treatment at Hiland Mountain Prison have been provided a full continuum of alcohol treatment, targeting specifically the issues of fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), the issues of child abuse for those women, who when they come out of prison may or may not have some relationship with their children again and may or may not be at risk for FAS births. MR. DAPCEVICH said that they want to provide the women good service while they are in prison, and they want to link community services to those women as they come out. The program at Hiland Mountain Prison links the institutional probation officer, the community probation officer and the treatment program in the community before the woman leaves prison so that there is a continuum of service after she leaves. He hopes this initiative will address those issues, and they will be able to get hard data for Alaska. The answer to the question is yes, and the Department of Corrections could provide the hard data. Number 0616 CO-CHAIRMAN DYSON asked if most of the prisons already have Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) chapters. MR. DAPCEVICH answered yes. CO-CHAIRMAN DYSON asked what percentage of the prison population chooses to participate in AA. Number 0661 MR. DAPCEVICH answered in 1997, the program provided clinical assessments to 1,577 inmates; 1,681 received education programs and those led to assessments so there were a few more; 807 received outpatient services. The new Hiland Mountain project is expected to provide services to 64 inmates at any given time. There are waiting lists for those services in the criminal justice system. They don't know how many people are coming into the system with problems because no assessments are done on entrance into the prison system. CO-CHAIRMAN COGHILL asked if some inmates are mandated to the AA treatments. MR. DAPCEVICH answered there are some mandates for treatments but not within the prison system. There are mandates for treatment for people who are involved in unlawful activity pre-sentencing, and there are some contingencies for treatment laid out as a part of parole, but he doesn't believe there are any mandates while in prison. Number 0798 CO-CHAIRMAN COGHILL noted that HCR 11 calls for sanctions for those who refuse to cooperate. He said that is strong language, yet it is weak language on getting a standardized screening information process. He wondered if that was on purpose. MR. DAPCEVICH answered that it is with purpose. They are not looking at those who want service, they are looking at providing service for those who need service as determined by the criminal justice system first. Number 0876 REPRESENTATIVE BRICE made a motion to move HCR 11 from the committee with individual recommendations and zero fiscal note. There being no objection, HCR 11 moved from the House Health, Education and Social Services Standing Committee.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|