Community Leaders Rally for Drug Treatment Instead of Incarceration : Houston Indymedia

HOUSTON, TX—Tirzo Ponce is a former Casa Phoenix Substance Abuse Treatment client and graduate. Today, at the Treatment Works! Rally, he spoke out about how drug treatment changed his life. “I wouldn’t have gotten the help I needed if I had gone to prison instead of drug treatment. I wouldn’t have been able to turn my life around and help others in the community. In prison, I would be just as lost as I was when I was on drugs,” he said. Ponce was joined by his mother, hundreds of Houston residents enrolled in drug treatment programs, and community leaders, including members of the Houston Ministers Against Crime, Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans and NAACP in the first major rally in Texas calling for treatment instead of incarceration for drug offenders.

“Although treatment costs about 10% of what incarceration costs and enhances the possibility of faster recovery, lower rates of recidivism, and family reunification, drug offenders are still being incarcerated,” says Orlando Montalvo, Clinical Director of Casa Phoenix “We know from firsthand experience that treatment programs are the best way to get people to change their behavior, because they give people the tools they need to take control of their lives.”

Texas prisons grew faster than any other prison system in the country during the 1990s, adding nearly one out of every 5 prisoners to the nation’s prison boom. About half of the people imprisoned in Texas are there for non-violent crimes: the state’s nonviolent prison population alone would represent the 5th largest prison system in the country. Including people in state jails, 1 out of 5 people imprisoned in Texas is incarcerated for a drug offense. Texas is the state with the largest percentage of its population under the control of the criminal justice system, and spends more than $2.9 billion annually on its prison system.

“Our communities are falling apart because so many people are being sent to prison for minor drug offenses,” said Yolanda Smith, Executive Director, NAACP Houston. “Treatment is better for society: fathers come home, mothers raise kids, families remain whole and people work jobs.”

The social costs of over incarceration are carried disproportionately by Latino and African American communities. In 2001, drug offenders counted for 19% of the prison population, 23.7% were Latinos. Black defendants are 19 times more likely than whites to be imprisoned for drug offenses in Texas. Latinos are twice as likely as whites to be convicted. Only 4% of Latina women and 5.4% of Black women with substance abuse problems are referred to treatment, compared to 12.8% of white women.

Pointing to the fiscal and social costs of needlessly incarcerating non-violent offenders, legislators sponsoring bills that would compensate counties that use drug courts and offer drug treatment in lieu of incarceration were cheered by rally speakers. “We are asking our representatives in Austin to do the right thing and the smart thing, when it comes to crime. When addicts get the help they need to free themselves from the chains of addiction, they are able to take control of their lives and give back to society. That's good news for all of us," said Reverend Robert Jefferson, pastor of the Cullen Missionary Baptist Church and a member of the Houston Ministers Against Crime.

Sponsors of the Treatment Works! Rally included: The Barbara Jordan Clinic, Riverside Hospital, Edith Jones Health Center, Houston NAACP, Houston Ministers Against Crime, League of United Latin American Citizens(LULAC), Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans, Tejano Center for Community Concerns, and Galaviz Academy. Speakers included: Gary Bledsoe – President, NAACP Texas; Earnest Gibson – CEO, Riverside General Hospital; Reverend Robert Jefferson – Houston Ministers Against Crime; Orlando Montalvo – Executive Director, Casa Phoenix; Michael Robinson – Director, Riverside General Hospital Residential Treatment Program; Yolanda Smith – Executive Director, NAACP Houston; and Dwight Steward, Ph.D. – Principal Economist, Steward Research Group.

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For more information on this release, the “Texas Tough?: Three Years Later” report, or to arrange interviews with any of the speakers, contact Natalia Kennedy, 202-363-7847, x310.