Ways to Save Money

In these hard times, money is hard to come by so you should know how to save it until things get better. Since it is a balancing act that is somewhat challenging, here are a few ways that can teach you how to save money. If you don’t want to lose your home like a lot of Americans have over the past year, you have to kill your debt first. You do that by calculating how much money you spend in a month and then see where the budgets can be made so there is money you can use to pay ...

Five Practical Ways to Save Money for Students

It can be hard to think of ways to save money especially for students since they don’t have their own money yet. This is because at times, for all the expenses while on campus, there is barely left to save. Although it is hard, it doesn’t mean that it is impossible for students to save money while studying. All they need is to develop good time management skills, strict budgeting, and practicality. If you are one of those who are thinking of ways to save money while on campus or even before you enter one, here are some of the ...

Six Simple Ways to Save Money

No matter where you look at it, there will be always ways to save money if the person has the will do so. If you are one of those who are trying to come up with ways to save money in this unstable economy, it is best to start with developing a simple lifestyle. When you are able to do this, the rest will follow. But, if you are one of those who are not sure where to start, here are some eight simple ways to save money. 1. Cut down on grocery or shopping sprees. Although buying groceries is a ...

Save Money Without Feeling Poor

Yes. You are feeling the economic crunch. Times are hard and you are finding it hard to even make both ends meet with the rising costs of basic necessities and the fact that you lost one of the part-time jobs that you are holding. This is the common scenario that people, not only in the US, is feeling. They may not have lost their jobs but they have certainly found it hard to earn extra. Can you blame them then if they look for ways to cut costs and save money? Although it looks like a pretty daunting task, it’s not ...

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Ways To Save Money

Proposition 36 Saves California Taxpayers Money

Proposition 36 - the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000 (SACPA) - was approved by 61% of California voters in the November 2000 referendum election. Known as the "Treatment Not Jail" initiative, Proposition 36 mandated that most persons convicted of 1st and 2nd time nonviolent, simple drug possession should receive probation with drug treatment instead of imprisonment or probation without any treatment. Offenders on probation or parole who commit nonviolent, drug-related offenses or who violate drug-related conditions of their release could also receive treatment under SACPA.

One of the concerns expressed at the time of the referendum was the fear that the cost of treatment provided under SACPA would be a burden on the taxpayer. A new study conducted by a team of researchers at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA demonstrates that instead of costing the taxpayer more, the SACPA is actually saving tax dollars.

The research team headed by the late Douglas Longshore examined the cost differences between all SACPA-eligible offenders during the program's first year and those for a similar group of drug offenders before SACPA. Both groups were assessed over a 30-month follow-up period.

The researchers examined costs in eight areas. Five involved the criminal justice system: jail, prison, probation, parole, and arrests and convictions. Two involved human services, namely drug abuse treatment and health care. The final area allowed accrued costs to be reduced by taxes paid by offenders on earnings and purchases. All analyses used the "taxpayer perspective" - focusing on costs to state and local governments. Costs were adjusted to 2004 dollars using the consumer price index or, as appropriate, the medical price index.

They found that California taxpayers save nearly $2.50 for every dollar invested in the treatment of nonviolent drug offenders under the state's Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act of 2000 (SACPA) - better known as Proposition 36. For offenders who completed their required drug treatment, nearly $4 was saved for each dollar expended. Taxpayer savings were $140.5 million in the first year and $158.8 million in the second.

Savings related to SACPA were largely due to reductions in jail and prison time, while cost increases were due to drug abuse treatment and to subsequent arrests and convictions primarily related to later non-violent drug offenses. Probation and parole cost changes were modest as were increases in health care costs and taxable earnings.

A disproportionately large share of the criminal justice costs were observed for the 1.6 percent of SACPA eligible offenders who had five or more prior convictions in the 30 months before the offense that brought them under SACPA. Costs for this subgroup at an average of $21,175 were nearly 10 times higher than the $2,254 for the typical offender.

"The cost savings are dramatic, but with increased system accountability measures and improved offender management, as well as incentives to community programs for better treatment entry, retention, and completion rates, they could rise even higher," according to study co author M. Douglas Anglin, UCLA Professor of Psychiatry. "Our suggestions for boosting those savings include further improvements in the coordination of services and continuity of care within counties, better participant screening, improved matching of services to needs, and attention to special populations of drug offenders, including minorities and offenders with psychiatric problems."

"The researchers concluded that the effectiveness of the SACPA program would be improved by a better match between the severity of the patient's drug problem and the intensity of the treatment provided," says the chair of NAPHP's Council on Illicit Drugs Policy, David Duncan. "But they fail to address the waste of taxpayer dollars on treatment for non-addicted drug users. Too many non-abusers wind up in treatment through this program, drug courts, or plea bargains whose social/recreational use of currently illicit drugs is doing neither them nor anyone else any harm." Professor Duncan also pointed out that SACPA seems to under utilize methadone maintenance for heroin addicts despite it unquestionably being the most effective type of treatment.

You can read the full report of the UCLA study at http://www.prop36.org/.

Another important report on this program is the Drug Policy Alliance's "Proposition 36: Improving Lives, Delivering Results".
About The Author

The author is a Methodist minister, a social worker, and a bioethicist.

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