PROPOSITION 36: IS IT WORKING?

Proposition 36, approved by 61 percent of voters in November 2000, requires that first and second-time nonviolent drug offenders be sent to treatment programs instead of prison. A just-released evaluation of the program finds that only a quarter of the participants actually complete drug treatment program. The results, compiled each year, come at a time when legislators are debating whether or not to continue funding the alternative program and whether to amend the law to let judges jail offenders who refuse treatment or who keep abusing drugs. Larry Mantle talks with UCLA's Douglas Longshore, lead investigator of the Prop. 36 evaluation, Senator Denise Ducheny, representing California's 40th district, and Kathryn Jett, Director of Alcohol and Drug Programs for the State of California.