U.S. Prisons to Expand Drug Treatment

Faced with a growing number of inmates with drug abuse problems, the federal Bureau of Prisons is expanding its treatment and education efforts, emphasizing programs late in offenders’ terms and post-release programs to keep them drug-free outside institutions.

J. Michael Quinlan, the prisons bureau director, announced the “major new initiatives” in federal prisons Tuesday. Today, the Senate Labor Committee is expected to accuse the Justice Department of recently cutting back federal funding for drug treatment in state correctional facilities.

In announcing the expanded programs for federal prisoners, Quinlan said that about 45% of the 56,200 persons now in federal prisons have drug or substance abuse histories--up from 40% two years ago and “probably half that” 10 years ago, Quinlan said.

“Once a person is addicted to drugs, the addiction remains for life,” Quinlan said. “If people don’t learn how to deal with (their addiction), they are going to return to the same lifestyle” that led them to prison.

The expanded effort will boost spending on drug treatment inside prisons from $2.25 million in fiscal 1989 to $6 million this year, and higher outlays are expected in the future, according to Quinlan. It includes:

--Establishing “high intensity” pilot programs at federal prisons in Butner, N.C., Lexington, Ky., and Tallahassee, Fla. They involve a year of almost constant treatment and counseling and a strict follow-up regimen.

--Designating five comprehensive treatment centers in Oregon, Texas, Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Jersey that will emphasize group and individual therapy.

--Setting up drug and counseling programs at all federal prisons lacking them now, and requiring completion of a 40-hour drug education course for every prisoner with a history of drug abuse.

--Developing after-care treatment and counseling for inmates released from prison, to be run in conjunction with programs already administered by the U.S. probation office.

The hearing today by the Labor Committee will take testimony on what committee aides have found to be reductions of support for drug treatment in state prisons by the Justice Department’s office of justice programs.

However, Velva M. Walter, a spokeswoman for the justice programs unit, contended that a number of the prison drug treatment projects that critics say are being cut back are actually pilot programs that have been funded for three years, as was originally intended.

“These programs don’t go on for perpetuity,” Walter said. She said that she could “not validate” a committee staff estimate that the office of justice programs reduced its outlay for state prison drug programs by $4.5 million this year.

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh said that the expanded effort announced by Quinlan will involve 1,000 additional inmates this year in treatment programs that “can facilitate their successful return to the community.”

The Justice Department “will be able to carefully monitor prisoners enrolled in those programs so as to determine what works in rehabilitation and treatment efforts,” Thornburgh said.

Up to six months of post-release treatment is being considered to prevent relapses by those who complete any of the programs.