In Holdup Attempt : Heroin Addict Prefers Prison to Drug Center

A heroin addict told a judge Thursday that a state rehabilitation center is full of drugs and drug users and asked to be sentenced to prison instead. He got his wish.

The addict, Todd Ishimoto, 24, had pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and was to be sentenced to a Southern California rehabilitation center. But he told a probation officer that he is “keenly aware of how many people come out of the California Rehabilitation Center in worse shape than when they entered and he feels that the influence of the other heroin addicts, being surrounded by them, would be very unproductive,” a probation report said.

“The defendant hopes that state prison will be an unpleasant enough experience so as to keep him ‘straight’ upon his eventual release.”

Ishimoto, a transient, admitted being in withdrawal from heroin when he walked unarmed into a North Hollywood drugstore on Dec. 17 and demanded barbiturates, court records showed. A store employee wrestled him to the floor and called police.

‘Just Wanted to Die’

Ishimoto told officers that he went to the store “to get drugs or to get shot” during the robbery, and “that he just wanted to die,” the probation report said.

Three weeks ago, Ishimoto made a deal that would have allowed him to be sentenced to 16 months in a drug recovery program at California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, in Riverside County, in return for a guilty plea.

He changed his mind between the plea and the sentence.

“He must have picked up rumors in County Jail,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Harold Lynn said.

The prosecutor said: “I’ve seen several prisoners avoid CRC to go to state prison. They felt they would have more exposure to the drugs at CRC than in state prison, and they were trying to help themselves.”

Ishimoto, dressed in a bright orange jump suit, said little during the sentencing except to answer San Fernando Superior Court Judge Howard J. Schwab’s questions.

‘Worse Off’

“You’re doing this because you believe you would be worse off coming out of the California Rehabilitation Center than state prison?” Schwab asked.

“That’s true,” Ishimoto said.

Schwab ordered Ishimoto to serve the 16 months in prison.

Officials at the rehabilitation center said their facility does not have more of a drug problem than a state prison.

“We use dogs a number of times to search visitors’ cars to prevent drugs,” spokesman Dick Jones said. “We have random urinalysis checks, hundreds per month.

“The rumor that we have a lot of drugs here comes up all the time, but that’s why we have urinalysis tests, to prevent that. What excuses the guy gives for not wanting to come here are up to him.”