Arizona Profile 1997

Drug Strategies

Making A Difference
Criminal Justice

>>Tucson
Genesis Through a Treatment Partnership
Nationwide, the substance abuse problems of women in prison are generating creative approaches and partnerships. In this spirit, the Arizona Department of Corrections, in collaboration with the Arizona Department of Health Services, developed a substance abuse treatment program for incarcerated women. Genesis, a 16-bed program in the Southern Arizona Correctional Release Center in Tucson, is a voluntary 12-week program.

With over five hours of structured programming daily, treatment addresses the physical, emotional and spiritual components of addiction. Emphasis is on group therapy, with encouragement and feedback from other addicts. Participants are housed separately from other inmates, in order to build openness in group therapy, and insure a drug-free treatment environment. Weekly roundtable discussions with guest lecturers, 12-step meetings, weekly exams on curriculum, journal writing, and random urinalysis are all included in treatment. Started in 1994, Genesis has yielded impressive results. Three months after treatment, 74 percent were still drug-free, nearly half were employed full-time, and three-quarters were still out of prison. For more information on Genesis, call (520) 884-8541.

>>Maricopa County
Treatment Choices for Female Offenders
A grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment allowed Maricopa County to establish the Women's Treatment, Services and Supervision Network (WTSSN). This integrated system of assessment and treatment is for substance abusing female offenders in Maricopa County. WTSSN ensures the availability of a continuum of treatment services, and improves treatment access and quality. Partnerships between criminal justice agencies and service delivery systems in the community provide assessments, client matching, and case management to measure and monitor progress. An integrated management information system is used to track female offenders, linking criminal justice and treatment professionals to the most recent information on each offender. Ongoing data collection in this system will be used for local and cross-site evaluation. To learn more, call (602) 506-6456.

>>Maricopa County
Do Drugs. Do Time. Do Treatment
In response to the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 and to the national movement toward increasing accountability for drug users, 26 city, county, state and Federal law enforcement agencies in and around Phoenix created the Maricopa County Demand Reduction Program. The initiative integrates community awareness, law enforcement and treatment in a united campaign against drug use. Historically, legal sanctions have stressed reducing the supply of drugs by punishing the drug seller. This program targets co-conspirators in the county's drug problem: predominantly white, middle class, recreational drug users who keep sellers in business. The program slogan "Do Drugs. Do Time" alerts casual users that possession of drugs will result in clear consequences. Each person arrested for drug possession spends time in jail, followed by time in treatment.

The demand reduction program promotes community awareness of drug problems; alerts drug users to legal sanctions; and coordinates a bridge between the criminal justice system and access to treatment. The Neighborhood Counter Drug Mobilization program, school-based Freedom Academy, and public service announcements on television, on city bus placards and billboards, all promote the "Do Drugs. Do Time" slogan. Using sting operations, undercover agents replace arrested drug dealers, and then arrest people attempting to purchase drugs. Law enforcement agents also conduct surveillance in nightclub parking lots, rock concerts and other recreational sites known for public drug activity. Due to extensive media coverage, these efforts alert drug users that drug possession is a felony in Arizona, and that the threat of arrest is real.

Drug users with no felony history may participate in the Maricopa County Adult Diversion Program. The 3 to 6 month treatment program includes random urine tests, drug education workshops, and individual and group counseling. Clients pay treatment fees, legal fees and court costs, and submit a written admission of guilt which is admissible in court, should they fail to complete the treatment and prosecution is pursued. After the first two years of the program, recidivism for those in treatment (11 percent) is less than half the rate of those who do not enter treatment (26 percent). To learn more, call (602) 506-7799.

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