Drug Offender Reform Act Clears Senate, Faces Challenge in House

None by KCPW

(KCPW News) The potential for big cost savings in the long run is what sold Utah Senators on a plan to spend 17-million dollars a year reforming drug offenders. The argument is particularly true among female offenders - more than 80 percent of whom have an underlying drug addiction.

"In the past you put the woman in jail for $24,000 a year and you put her three kids into state custody for $30,000 a year each," says State Senator Chris Buttars. "So that one woman going to jail costs the state $120,000."

Senator Chris Buttars is the champion of the Drug Offender Reform Act, or DORA. Drug treatment also reduces the likelihood of re-offending -but lawmakers have to balance that with the significant upfront cost of creating more treatment options. It would be up to the judge to assign someone to drug treatment rather than time in jail or prison. DORA is poised to clear the State Senate unanimously.

But members of the Utah House are less convinced of the program's value. Two years ago a small-scale pilot of DORA became a bargaining chit in the final hours of the Legislature. Senate President John Valentine anticipates it will play a similar role this year.

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