Published Sunday, January 27, 2002

Florida slashing care for addicts
BY CAROL MARBIN MILLER

In a state where nearly a third of all crimes are drug-related, the Department of Corrections has approved a budget cut that will eliminate the bulk of drug treatment among inmates and greatly reduce the state's program to help drug addicts outside the prison system.

The cuts, expected to save Florida taxpayers $13 million this fiscal year, will eliminate in-house drug treatment programs at all but four of Florida's 55 ``major'' prisons -- those that house inmates sentenced to more than a year behind bars, said Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for the Corrections Department in Tallahassee. The four prisons that will continue to carry out treatment all have federal matching grants that partially fund the programs.

The cuts also will reduce by 34 percent the number of beds available to treat drug addicts at 20 residential treatment programs throughout the state.

Nearly one in four prisoners in Florida are treated for substance abuse. After the cuts, only informal efforts such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous will remain in 51 of the state's major prisons.

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Read the rest of this article at the Miami Herald