SAN DIEGO - Graduates of Proposition 36, California’s treatment-instead-of-incarceration law, met with legislators in the greater San Diego area today to ask for their  continued support of the program. Funding for Prop 36 drug treatment will expire on June 30, 2006, unless it is reallocated in the state budget due out in summer.

Today the grads shared their success stories with staff in eight San Diego legislators’ offices, including Senators Christine Kehoe and Dennis Hollingsworth. Prop 36 graduates also shared their criminal justice and recovery experiences at several assembly members’ offices, including George Plescia, Mark Wyland, Shirley Horton, Juan Vargas, Lori Saldaña and Ray Haynes.

Participants in today’s Prop 36 San Diego Advocacy Day are all in recovery rather than jail thanks to Prop 36. They represent some of the over 140,000 Californians that have entered treatment through the program in just four years - and some of the 60,000 that will have graduated by July 1, 2006. Also by that date, the program will have saved taxpayers between $800 million and $1.3 billion.

Prop 36 graduates that participated in today’s Prop 36 Advocacy Day are concerned that other Californians won’t get the opportunities they did if funding for Prop 36 drug treatment is allowed to end on June 30, 2006. They warned San Diego legislators today that unless Prop 36 drug treatment is sufficiently funded, people who are suffering from addiction might not receive adequate care in the program, which would greatly jeopardize their chances at successful recovery.

A New PATH and the Drug Policy Alliance, sponsors of the event, helped lead the campaign to pass Prop 36 in 2000 and continue to work to protect the program.

More information:

A recent report by the University of California at Los Angeles showed that Prop 36 actually saved the state money - an average of $2.50 for every $1 invested. For program completers, like those who met with their legislators today, the savings was even higher, at $4 for every $1 invested.

A recent Justice Policy Institute study showed that, in the five years since Prop 36 was approved, California prisons saw a 32 percent drop in the number of people incarcerated for drug possession and the violent crime rate in California dropped at a faster rate than other states.

For more information and copies of these reports, visit www.Prop36.org