White House Official to Speak at IL Drug Prevention, Treatment Conference
(Chicago) – Dr. Kevin Sabet, special advisor for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, will speak at a statewide conference on drug prevention and treatment at the Hilton Lisle/Naperville on Tuesday, September 29.
Dr. Sabet, a longtime advocate of alternatives to incarceration for drug-using offenders, will speak at the annual event of the Illinois Alcoholism and Drug Dependence Association (IADDA). He is expected to reinforce the Administration’s position that addiction to alcohol and drugs must be recognized as a preventable, treatable disease.
Dr. Sabet will be part of the opening panel that will also feature Paul Samuels, president of the Legal Action Center in New York and Lonnetta Albright, director of the Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center. The panelists will come together to discuss the future of addiction healthcare in the United States, including global and national trends, healthcare reform, regional trends, and the outlook for 2010 and beyond.
TASC is a member of IADDA. For more information on the IADDA conference, please visit http://www.iadda.org/.
(Post-script: Above photo taken Sept. 29 as Dr. Sabet spoke at the IADDA conference. Photo by D. Baille, TASC.)
State Lawmakers, Criminal Justice Experts to Scrutinize Racial Impact of Illinois Drug Laws
Springfield, IL – State legislative and criminal justice leaders gathered in Chicago on Monday to evaluate the impact of Illinois drug laws on minority communities. Members of the Illinois Disproportionate Justice Impact Study Commission will begin work to determine if current state laws and policies contribute to the disproportionate percentages of minorities in jails and prisons.
The Commission, co-chaired by State Senator Mattie Hunter (D- Chicago) and State Representative Art Turner (D-Chicago), is the outcome of Senate Bill 2476, which passed the Illinois Senate and the Illinois House unanimously last year and became Public Act 095-0995.
Commission members, named in the law or appointed by the Senate and House leaders, will examine the causes and consequences of findings such as these:
- In Illinois in 2005, whites comprised 66% of the general population, African-Americans 15%. That same year, whites comprised only 28% of the Illinois prison population, and African-Americans 61%.[1]
- In 2005, African Americans were 9.1 times more likely to be incarcerated in prison or jail in Illinois than whites, ranking Illinois 14th worst in the nation, and well above the national average of 5.6 times more likely.[2]
- From 1990 to 2000, the number of African Americans admitted to prison in Illinois for drug offenses grew six-fold from 1,421 to 9,088. In contrast, the number of whites admitted to prison for drug offenses remained relatively stable.[3]
- The proportion of African Americans arrested for drug offenses in Illinois increased steadily from 1983 to 1992, from 46% to 82% of those arrested for such crimes. The proportions of whites arrested decreased steadily during those years, from 41% to 11%.[4]
These significant disparities exist despite the fact that rates of illicit drug use vary relatively little by ethnicity. The just-released 2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health shows rates of past month illicit drug use among persons 12 or older to be 10.1% among African Americans, 8.2% for whites, and 6.2% for Latinos.
“These incarceration trends are disturbing and we need to remedy them,” says Senator Hunter, who co-sponsored the legislation creating the Commission. “When rates of drug use among minorities are relatively similar, but rates of incarceration are wildly disproportionate, we need to understand why that is happening and what we can do about it.”
According to a 2008 report by the Center for Health and Justice at TASC, the disparities in incarceration trends relate in part to changes in the drug laws in the late 1980s. Between 1986 and 1991, the number of African Americans incarcerated for drug crimes rose four times as fast as the number of whites.
“No legislature sets out to make a law that disproportionately imprisons a particular racial community, but I believe our laws here in Illinois do just that,” says Senator Hunter. “Now we have an opportunity to examine what’s happening and right the wrong.”
The Commission’s work will yield legislative and other policy recommendations designed to address any disproportionate impact found to result from state drug laws and/or their application.
State budget woes have cut funding for alternatives to incarceration, including the statewide TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities) program, which places and monitors nonviolent, drug-using offenders in substance abuse treatment as a condition of their probation.
“When the State cuts funding for drug treatment, alternatives to incarceration, and community probation and supervision, the consequences of those cuts are felt by minority communities that are already being affected disproportionately by current drug laws,” says Pamela Rodriguez, president of TASC and its Center for Health and Justice, which is assisting the work of the Commission. “We need to be vigilant about not cutting the very programs that divert nonviolent, drug-using offenders out of the justice system and into community-based treatment.”
The Commission’s work will be informed by advisory groups that examine research, policy, and economic impact. The research advisory group comprises researchers from Loyola University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, Roosevelt University, the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, and the Illinois Department of Corrections, along with staff researchers and legal and policy consultants from the Center for Health and Justice at TASC. The policy and economic impact advisory groups will be composed of a variety of university and community members with interest and expertise in economics and public policy related to criminal justice.
[1] U.S Census Bureau and Illinois Department of Corrections, 2005 Department Data.
[2] Uneven Justice: State Rates of Incarceration by Race and Ethnicity, Marc Mauer and Ryan S. King, Sentencing Project, July 2007.
[3] The Disproportionate Incarceration of African Americans for Drug Crimes: The Illinois Perspective. Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, Arthur J. Lurigio and Mary Harkenrider, November 2005.
[4] Ibid.
IL Budget Passes With Modified Cuts to Human Services; TASC Awaits Revised State Contracts; Furloughed TASC Staff Return to Work
(Chicago) — The Illinois General Assembly approved, and Governor Pat Quinn signed, three budget bills Wednesday that lessen the blow of funding cuts to human service providers. Instead of the 50-75 percent cuts that had been in place, state funding for social services will be approximately 14 percent below last year’s levels. The allocations to substance abuse treatment and TASC remain to be determined.
Media coverage of this budget breakthrough is statewide. Click for stories from WSIL-TV, CBS-2 Chicago, and the Chicago Sun-Times.
Meanwhile, 139 staff who had been on unpaid furlough July 1-15 return to work today. TASC’s statewide court services resume following a two-week service suspension induced by the state budget cuts.
Once the revised FY10 state contracts are re-issued (for the fiscal year that began July 1), the implications for TASC staffing and service levels will follow.
Illinois Doomsday Budget Forces TASC to Suspend Addiction Services
(Chicago, IL) — TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities), a not-for-profit helps drug and alcohol addicts get into treatment, is losing 76 percent of its state funding in the Illinois doomsday budget crisis.
Beginning July 1, workers were forced to take two weeks off without pay.
The organization is mandated by the state to evaluate substance abuse addicts and determine an alternative treatment to jail. Without TASC services, addicts who fail to receive treatment are likelier to continue to abuse drugs and alcohol, sending them back in jail, again and again and again.
Governor Pat Quinn, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate President John Cullerton, House Minority Leader Tom Cross, and Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno continue budget negotiations.
Lawmakers return to Springfield on July 14.
more about “Illinois Doomsday Budget Forces TASC …“, posted with vodpod
DCFS Restores Funds Previously Cut from TASC’s Child Welfare Programs; DHS Funding Cuts Hurting Thousands
(Chicago) — The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has taken the lead in restoring funding to vital human services. Having sent notification in mid-June that TASC’c child welfare programs were being zeroed out, DCFS has restored funds to TASC and other service providers to FY09 contract levels.
TASC’s child welfare staff in Cook County and in Southern Illinois, who had been laid off as of July 1, were called back to work on July 6. Now, these workers are reaching out to the 600+ parents and adolescents who were cut from services at the end of June. The financial and clinical toll of the service disruption will likely not be calculable.
An emergency motion filed by the ACLU argued that a reduction in services would be in violation of a consent decree under which DCFS operates. U.S. District Court Judge John F. Grady concurred, ordering that “the state comply with all provisions of the consent decree, including: maintaining all programs and services that DCFS directs to fulfill the detailed requirements of the consent decree” (MSN Money, June 30, 2009).
It is a partial victory for thousands in need, yet communities across the state continue to deal with the fallout from the ongoing budget calamity.
“We are pleased that children and families will again have access to our life-changing child welfare services,” said TASC President Pam Rodriguez. “But this represents only a sliver of the funding that needs to be restored. Thousands of individuals remain in crisis – and each day that passes increases the overall cost to our state and taxpaying citizens.”
TASC’s court-based services, which are funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services, have been slashed by 75 percent, and TASC’s community reentry services, funded by the Illinois Department of Corrections, have been cut 25 percent.
One hundred thirty-nine DHS-funded TASC staff are on a two-week unpaid furlough until July 15. More than 1,500 clients have been terminated prematurely from TASC services, and another 1,000 are currently on wait lists across the state.
TASC’s court services, currently suspended, will resume on July 16. The scope and scale of TASC’s service delivery over the coming months remains in question, depending on the timing and the outcome of the budget negotiations in Springfield.
“TASC will continue to aggressively advocate on behalf of the people and communities we serve,” said Ms. Rodriguez. “Now more than ever, as the very infrastructure that serves tens of thousands of Illinoisans is being dismantled, our clients need our strong voices on their behalf.”
The legislature, led by Senate President John Cullerton and House Speaker Michael Madigan, is due to convene in a joint special session on Tuesday, July 14.
CBS-2 News Video: Illinois Doomsday Budget Forces TASC Employee Furlough, Client Service Cuts
(Chicago, IL) — WBBM/CBS-2 TV’s Derrick Blakley reports that the Illinois doomsday budget has forced TASC to furlough much of its statewide workforce and drastically curtail Illinois substance abuse treatment services to individuals struggling with drug and alcohol addiction.
Watch video.
TASC Court Services Suspended Due To Illinois Doomsday Budget
(St. Louis, MO) – From Ryan Dean KSDK TV:
One organization paying close attention to the happenings in Springfield, Illinois is TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities).
The not-for-profit helps drug and alcohol addicts get into treatment. Leaders of the organization say they are going to lose 76 percent of their funding if nothing changes in Springfield. Beginning July 1, workers will be forced to take two weeks off without pay.
The organization is mandated by the state to evaluate substance abuse addicts and determine an alternative treatment to jail. TASC believes an addict who does not get treatment is likelier to continue to abuse drugs and alcohol, sending them back in jail, again and again.
Children & Parents Lose TASC Services; Dozens of TASC Staff Furloughed and Laid Off; Still No State Budget Resolution in Sight for Quinn, Cullerton, Madigan, Cross, Radogno
(Chicago) — Multiple news reports have implied that June 30 is the deadline for Governor Pat Quinn, Senate President John Cullerton, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, House Minority Leader Tom Cross and the remainder of the General Assembly to straighten out the state’s budget.
In fact, the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS), Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), and Department of Corrections (DOC) sent out notification last week of the massive budget cuts to human services, and many agencies, including TASC, already have been forced to slash workforces and terminate services to clients.
For the first time in TASC’s 33-year history, staff furlough notices went out today. Some 140 staff across Illinois will be without work and without pay for two weeks beginning July 1, and an additional 51 are being laid off.
Cuts Tragic to Parents and Children
Hardest hit at TASC so far have been the agency’s child welfare services, which are eliminated. Nearly 500 parents and youth under the care and supervision of the DCFS-funded Recovery Coach and System of Care programs are being notified this week that they will no longer receive critical housing stabilization and family reunification services.
All 51 TASC child welfare program staff in Cook County and in Southern Illinois are jobless as of July 1. Among them are single parents, individuals with health issues, grandparents who are caretakers of young children, and many others for whom the loss of employment creates untold hardship – not to mention the hardship confronting clients for whom TASC’s services are life-changing. (Without TASC, parents like Janice and Kim will likely lose permanent custody of their children.)
The Recovery Coach program is a highly successful program of intensive outreach to parents who have lost custody of their children due to the parent’s addiction. TASC Recovery Coaches work very closely with parents to ensure that they receive necessary treatment services, counseling, and skills training to become healthy and responsible parents.
Without TASC’s intensive outreach, clinical services, and advocacy, most are likely to lose their children for good. Their children will remain in foster care – or receive little to no care at all – at a greater financial cost to the state and a catastrophic human toll to children and their families.
In-depth research on the Recovery Coach program shows that parents in the program are more likely than others involved in DCFS to enter substance abuse treatment, complete treatment, and achieve family reunification.
The System of Care program works with young children and teenagers who have had particularly difficult placements in foster care due to the youth’s mental health issues, past physical and sexual abuse, and other circumstances that make life especially challenging for them and their foster parents. In this program, TASC provides an array of outreach and clinical services to ensure that young people are stabilized in safe and permanent living situations rather than being bounced from foster home to foster home or group homes.
Both programs are gone. It will take intervention and action at the highest levels of Illinois government for services to return.
Program Cuts Cost the State Millions in Federal Aid
Marc Smith, Child Welfare Advocate
What is most difficult to understand about these budget cuts, for many, is that they are inexplicable from both a human standpoint and a financial standpoint. “TASC’s Recovery Coach program has proven to be the most successful family reunification program in Illinois,” according to Marc Smith, who oversees TASC’s child welfare services. “And most bewildering is that the program does not cost the state a penny. Any money that the state puts into it comes back directly from the federal government. It is free to the state.”
In fact, the program saved the state more than $5 million in its first five years, and has remained a cost saver.
Says TASC Executive Vice President Pam Rodriguez, “Many have suggested that the Governor’s budget is a ploy, a tactic to raise alarm. This is no false alarm — it is real. Real people are being furloughed or laid off. Real clients will not get services and be in jail or prison or face termination of parental rights. We are not playing a game — we are fighting to provide services, to save lives.”
Though severe damage to children and families is already being inflicted, these catastrophic cuts can be reversed. The General Assembly has not completed its work on the FY10 budget.
Look up your Illinois state legislators here.
Cuts to Drug Treatment Fiscally Irresponsible; Budget Cuts Shift Costs to Counties, Threaten Public Safety; Quinn Wants IL General Assembly to Vote on Revenue Wednesday
(Chicago) – In the face of massive budget cuts that eliminate state funding for drug treatment, criminal courts across Illinois face backlogs and chaos if treatment is not available as a sentencing option for nonviolent offenders.
The Chicago Daily Law Bulletin, the LaSalle News Tribune, and Chicago Public Radio are among those in the past few days who have reported on how the budget cuts create problems for courts, jails, and prisons.
DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett opposes state budget cuts to TASC.
DuPage County State’s Attorney Joe Birkett held a press conference in Wheaton on Monday to protest the proposed state budget. “If these cuts were to take place, it would be damaging to Illinois’ criminal justice system,” he said. “Cutting funding to vital organizations such as TASC that provide crucial services for drug related offenses would end up costing the state significantly more money in the long run.” (See article in Fox Valley Villages Sun.)
Cuts Force Suspension of TASC Court Services
Pursuant to Illinois statute, TASC is the only program designated by the state to provide substance abuse assessments, treatment placement, and monitoring of eligible drug-addicted offenders as an alternative to incarceration. An independent, nonprofit agency, TASC places and supervises clients in state-funded treatment programs across Illinois.
TASC received notice last week from the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) that TASC’s statewide services for the Illinois courts are being de-funded by 76 percent as of July 1. Drug treatment providers across Illinois are facing equally back-breaking cuts.
The cuts to TASC and treatment are disproportionate to the already devastating 50 percent budget cuts faced by related human services. (See June 19 editorial by the Peoria Journal Star.)
TASC has been forced to suspend intake and notify current clients that, unless and until the budget is resolved, they will not be receiving TASC’s services after July 1. Staff in programs affected by the budget cuts – representing more than half of the statewide agency – are being placed on unpaid furlough pending the outcome of state budget decisions in Springfield.
LaSalle County State’s Attorney Brian Towne told the LaSalle News Tribune, “TASC has done an admirable job of helping those who need to be helped. Without their services, repeat offenders will undoubtedly continue to fill our court system.”
TASC’s clients have significantly better outcomes, in terms of reduced drug use and reduced crime, than offenders who do not get TASC.
Budget Cuts Shift Costs to Counties, Add Costs to State
The FY10 state budget eliminates treatment for 65,000 people in the coming year, including 25,000 who are referred to treatment by the criminal justice system.
If each of these individuals is held in jail an extra 30 days due to the lack of treatment in the community, the cost to Illinois counties will be $74 million in the coming year (based on an average daily jail cost of $125 in Cook County and $70 outside of Cook County).
As of Friday, June 19, there were 126 people waiting in county jails across Illinois for a TASC assessment. They are waiting because the TASC budget cuts have forced the suspension of intake. Thirty-six are in Cook County ($125/day) and 90 are in other jails across Illinois (average $70/day). It is currently costing taxpayers $10,800 for every day these 126 people wait in jail.
Additionally, in FY08, approximately 5,500 adults were sentenced to TASC under ILCS 301/40, the statute that allows for supervised treatment as an alternative to incarceration for certain categories of felony offenders. Without TASC’s treatment placement and monitoring services for these individuals, they would most likely be headed to prison at an additional cost of $154 million to Illinois taxpayers.
In a state that already spends 25 times more on the consequences of addiction than on preventing and treating it, these cuts are “financially absurd,” according to TASC Executive Vice President Pam Rodriguez.
Budget Cuts Threaten Public Safety
Data released recently by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy show that Chicago leads the nation when it comes to arrestees testing positive for illicit drugs, with nearly nine out of ten having used drugs within 48 hours of their booking.
Without treatment available as a sentencing option, judges have three options: (1) send more nonviolent offenders to prison, at a cost to taxpayers eight times that of supervised treatment; (2) hold nonviolent offenders in county jails, at an average cost to county taxpayers of $2,100 – $3,750 per person per month; or (3) release addicted offenders to the community with their addictions intact, and without access to treatment or TASC supervision.
“TASC and drug treatment are fiscally responsible solutions to some of society’s most pervasive problems,” says Ms. Rodriguez. “We place into treatment and hold accountable those whose addictions cost society the most.”
Urgent Need for Budget Resolution
The impact of the cuts is already being manifested in suspended services and staff furloughs. To reverse the cuts, the General Assembly – including legislative leaders John Cullerton, Michael Madigan, Christine Radogno, and Tom Cross – will need to vote on new state revenues and also appropriate sufficient funds to drug treatment and case management.
“This is not a Democratic issue or a Republican issue,” emphasizes Ms. Rodriguez. “This is about fiscally sound public policy.”
Legislators will convene in Springfield on Tuesday, where they likely will be met by thousands of cut-protesting citizens. A vote on additional taxes may take place on Wednesday.
WBEZ Interviews TASC on Budget Cuts; Quinn, Cullerton, Madigan, Radogno and Cross Still Deadlocked
(Chicago, IL) – “We have never been in this kind of situation before.”
That’s a big statement when it’s spoken by TASC President Melody Heaps, who has seen numerous state budget battles in her 33 years at the helm of TASC.
TASC received budget cut letters this week from the Illinois Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The letters announced that TASC’s statewide services for criminal justice clients are cut 76%, and TASC’s child welfare services are zeroed out completely.
The back-breaking cuts to TASC, substance abuse treatment programs, and numerous other human service agencies are set to take effect July 1.
Rob Wildeboer, reporter for Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ, 91.5 FM) interviewed Ms. Heaps on Wednesday.* Given that this is not the first time that human services have faced potential budget cuts, Mr. Wildeboer asked if the current uproar is saber rattling.
“This is not saber rattling,” Ms. Heaps emphasized. “These are the facts.”
Ms. Heaps explained that because funding for TASC’s criminal justice and child welfare programs is severely curtailed or eliminated as of July 1, TASC has no choice but to halt intake and begin notifying clients that services are stopped. The statewide agency is currently in the process of terminating assessment, case management, and supervision of some 3,000 clients across Illinois, including nearly 1,200 court-mandated clients in Cook County.
Courts will become backlogged, addiction-driven crime will increase, and the costs of dealing with addiction will be shifted to county jails and hospitals.
In addition, parents who are working to overcome addiction and regain custody of their children will no longer have the services of TASC’s Recovery Coach program. Without treatment for parents, more children will remain wards of the state.
“These budget cuts undermine the very purpose of TASC, and they undo decades of work by the courts and treatment system in Illinois,” said TASC Executive Vice President Pam Rodriguez. “They are an affront to every judge who relies on community-based treatment as a sentencing option for nonviolent offenders, to every child advocate who helps to heal families affected by addiction, and to every taxpayer who believes in the efficient use of public dollars to maintain community safety.”
Governor Pat Quinn, Senate President John Cullerton, House Speaker Michael Madigan, Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno, and House Minority Leader Tom Cross met again on Wednesday, though state budget talks remain at an impasse.
The General Assembly will convene in a special legislative session in Springfield beginning next Tuesday, June 23.
* Note: TASC does not provide drug treatment, as reported in the WBEZ story. TASC is an independent, nonprofit entity whose criminal justice programs link the criminal justice system to community-based drug treatment. As the agency designated by the state pursuant to Chapter 20 ILCS 301/40, TASC provides clinical assessment, treatment placement, and ongoing case management and client supervision.
TASC clients have significantly better outcomes, in terms of reduced crime and reduced drug use, than individuals who do not get TASC.
