AMERICAN-STATESMAN EDITORIAL BOARD
The pressure exerted by a severe decline in state revenues is making
itself felt in some unexpected ways. One is a challenge from some House Republicans to the idea that anyone arrested with
even a small amount of illegal drugs ought to be thrown into prison.
Currently, someone arrested for having less than a gram of banned
substances -- an amount you might find in a packet of artificial sweetener -- faces conviction on a state jail felony with
up to two years of state jail time, even on a first offense.
But faced with a $9.9 billion revenue shortfall in this and the
next two budget years, even some law-and-order Republicans are favoring a bill that would provide that people arrested for
small amounts of Ecstasy, LSD, cocaine or other illegal drugs could be given "mandatory intensive narcotics supervision or
confinement" (treatment) rather than jail time and a felony conviction.
Rep. Ray Allen, R-Grand Prairie, filed the bill, which also would
reduce the crime to a misdemeanor. A co-author of that legislation, Rep. Jack Stick, R-Austin, a former prosecutor, said he
had "sent 1,000 people to prison for these types of offenses over the last 10 years, and I'm not sure I feel good about it."
Current legislation also hits young people who get convicted for
having, say, a small amount of Ecstasy at a party: "We ruin their lives -- go ahead and try to get a job. Even with deferred
adjudication, you can't do it."
There's a Nixon-to-China angle here: Republicans seeking to moderate
punishment for any crime should be much less vulnerable to charges of going soft on crime than would a Democrat.
And there's a financial motive: the state could save $240 million
over the next five years by sending fewer people to state jails for minor drug offenses. State officials on Tuesday announced plans to eliminate more than 600 jobs at prisons because
of the budget crunch.
There are still issues to be resolved within Allen's bill. One
issue, for example, is who pays for the treatment. People from middle-class homes probably can afford to pay for their own
treatment, and they may even have insurance. But those from poorer households probably will need help paying for it.
Prosecutors from Harris County don't like the idea of downgrading
the status of a drug crime to a misdemeanor. And, they say, that would shift the cost of prosecution and punishment from the
state to the county. Stick said one possible alternative is to retain the offense's status as a felony, but to provide for
expunction of the crime from the record of a person who completes treatment and stays clean for at least a year.
We hope these problems can be worked out. We should not automatically
send small-time drug offenders to jail or stigmatize them with felony convictions.
If treatment can work, both the offender and society will be better
off. And if it doesn't work, state jail time remains an option.
