AUSTIN - Some ex-convicts paroled from Texas prisons may not get the substance abuse treatment they need, making them more likely to commit the crimes that landed them in prison in the first place, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

Paroled and drug-addicted parolees in Texas won't receive drug rehabilitation services if lawmakers chop more money from the criminal justice department's budget.

Next session, lawmakers may make across-the-board cuts as part of a government-wide money-saving effort.

State prison officials warned in their budget request that cuts would mean eliminating or scaling back services designed to keep ex-convicts from reoffending.

Texas prison officials have made a special request for $10 million during the next two years to treat 16,500 parolees.

Without the money, officials said they expect people released from prison to commit more drug-related crimes and end up back in the state's custody.

"With fewer resources aimed at diverting offenders from incarceration, the already growing offender populations could grow larger," the report said.

Dick Spaulding, president of Serenity Foundation of Texas that operates treatment facilities in Abilene and Wichita Falls, said he has seen the recidivism rate drop to as low as 20 percent with the help of the Serenity Foundation. Without treatment, Spaulding guessed the rate was more like 80 percent.

Spaulding added that he would eliminate the Serenity Foundation's treatment program for ex-convicts if lawmakers decide to scale back any more funding.

"If they cut us, we're going to cut them," he said. "It will make a difference for those few families that we accommodate."

The Senate Committee on Criminal Justice also recognized the potentially dangerous possibilities of slashing rebab programs. Funding substance abuse programs is a necessary step in keeping prison costs down, said Larance Coleman, policy director for Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, chairman of the committee.

"If you don't treat a person for the drug abuse, all you are doing is releasing a bunch of dried drunks or dried addicts," Coleman said. "All we do is quicken their return to prison when we don't provide that type of program."

"Unfortunately we've lost a lot of the drug and substance abuse programming that we had,'' he said.

In 2003, lawmakers faced a $10 billion budget shortfall and cut budgets that led the removal of substance abuse treatment programs in state jails.

Many programs for parolees were eliminated too, Coleman said.

The Senate committee's report called for a reverse of last year's momentum.

The report recommended increased support of drug courts dedicated to divert offenders into "life-changing treatment and away from state jail or prison confinement."

District Judge Sandra Watts, who has been running a drug court for almost a year in Nueces County, has put dozens of people into treatment programs and kept them out of jail.

She said shortsighted state budget cuts that eliminate treatment programs only end up costing more money down the road.

"We're dealing with the immediate problem, not the long-term solution," Watts said, adding that the judicial system would be better served by focusing on offenders' addictions.

Every $1 spent in preventative programs, such as drug courts, saves $7 in treatment or punishment, said Dave Wanser, deputy commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services.

In its pre-legislative report, the Senate Criminal Justice Committee called for an increase in the number of available substance abuse treatment beds and a boost of funding for residential and nonresidential treatment facilities.

But money is tight in Austin. State budget leaders have asked state agencies to prepare for a 5 percent cut in the budgets for the next two years.

In addition, because the federal government said the state did not invest enough of its own money, the state might not be able to keep almost $10 million that could be used to help pay for substance abuse programs.

The state is appealing to the federal government, said Joe Vesowate, the state assistant commissioner for mental health and substance abuse services.

He also said officials at the Department of State Health Services would ask lawmakers to restore enough funding to substance abuse treatment programs to make sure that there are no problems getting the federal dollars in the future.

Contact Tim Eaton _at (512)334-6642 or by e-mail _at eatont@scripps.com