Friday, May 16, 2008

In a victory for California's groundbreaking treatment-instead-of-incarceration initiative, Proposition 36, a California Superior Court ruled last week that a law poised to make fundamental changes to the program was unconstitutional. The ruling came in response to a legal challenge mounted by the Drug Policy Alliance, the California Society of Addiction Medicine, and Cliff Gardner, co-author of Prop. 36.

The ruling dealt with the constitutionality of SB 1137, a bill signed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. SB 1137 would have radically changed Prop. 36, allowing people engaged in drug treatment who relapse to be removed from treatment and locked up in jail for several days.  In striking down SB 1137, the court noted that "the studies upon which the Legislature could have relied in enacting SB 1137 did not find that Proposition 36 "was not working," nor did they find that jail sanctions were a necessary or recommended change to the Proposition 36 scheme."  The court stated further that "for those in the Proposition 36 group who entered and completed treatment, there were favorable outcomes in terms of re-offense, employment and drug use compared to those who had not entered or completed treatment. Thus, these studies do not weigh in favor of the amendments passed by the Legislature."

While the lawsuit challenging SB 1137 was underway, the law was prevented from taking effect by a  preliminary injunction granted at the request of DPA and the other plaintiffs.

According to the state constitution, changes that revise the intent of a ballot initiative cannot be made without putting the question to the voters. SB 1137 was a challenge not only to the hugely successful and democratically approved Prop. 36 treatment program, but to the state's entire democratic initiative process.

Thanks to last week's ruling, Prop. 36 will be able to continue to operate with the tremendous effectiveness it has shown since its inception. The program has graduated more than 84,000 people and saved taxpayers over $1.5 billion since 2001.

The next step for DPA is to obtain a judgment, which concludes the litigation at the trial court level. If the state and county defendants in the suit decide to appeal the ruling, DPA will continue to defend Prop. 36.

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