This year voters will be asked to approve a substantial reform of California's overwhelmed criminal justice system.

The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act (NORA), Proposition 5 on the November ballot, will change the way the state treats nonviolent offenders.

It will implement reforms repeatedly recommended by experts over several decades and will finally address the role that addiction and mental illness play in driving our incarceration and recidivism rates.

Proposition 5 builds upon the successful drug treatment programs created by voter-approved Proposition 36 (November 2000).

California currently offers virtually no publicly funded substance abuse treatment options for youth under the age of 18. This tragic and short-sighted failure abandons young people to their drug problems, putting their safety, their physical and mental health, and their futures at risk. Families, too often, have nowhere to turn for help. NORA would fund the creation of a system of care for non-criminally involved young people with drug problems.

NORA commits about $65 million per year to drug treatment and other support programs for youth, funding the creation of a system of care for young people under the age of 18 where no system exists now. Additional money for youth treatment would come from fines paid for low-level marijuana possession offenses.

By expanding rehabilitation behind bars, providing more re-entry services to nonviolent offenders on parole and expanding access to treatment, instead of incarceration, for nonviolent low-level drug offenders, NORA would significantly reduce recidivism and support parolee reintegration into the community.

NORA expands the diversion of nonviolent offenders to addiction treatment. NORA provides rehabilitation programs to nonviolent prisoners and parolees, and prevents them from being returned to prison for minor violations. NORA motivates participants to complete treatment and rehabilitation through an appropriate mix of incentives, rewards, sanctions and consequences.

NORA creates a unified system of care and provides $385 million per year to pay for drug treatment and related costs. Nonviolent drug offenders would be placed in one of three different levels of care and supervision, based on their criminal history and drug problem severity. Participants who fail at the lower levels could be moved up to the more intensive levels, or could be jailed for noncompliance. Completing the prescribed course of treatment can lead to the participants' drug offense being dropped from his or her criminal record.

It provides for prison system and parole reforms. NORA makes rehabilitation a real priority for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, while limiting the use of prison beds to punish minor parole violations by nonviolent offenders. An independent oversight panel would have authority over major aspects of the implementation of NORA.

Because NORA would sharply limit the incarceration of nonviolent offenders, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office projects that the measure would save California $1 billion or more each year in prison and parole costs. Much of the annual savings would be used instead to pay for the measure's new treatment and rehabilitation programs. According to the Legislative Analyst's Office, the state would see additional net savings of $2.5 billion over several years as prison-construction costs would be reduced by NORA’s reforms.

Lake County Democrats and the Democratic Party of California urge a “yes” vote on Propostion 5.

In this time of budget crisis, California cannot afford to continue “churning” nonviolent

offenders without reducing recidivism. NORA would reallocate funding to make rehabilitation and drug treatment a priority.

The "Yes" campaign's Web site is www.prop5yes.com.

The Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act offers common-sense solutions to California's prison overcrowding crisis.

Rebecca Curry lives in Kelseyville.

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Written by: Rebecca Curry

Published: 04 September 2008