Prison anti-drug programs criticized

One study of the two largest in-prison programs found that recidivism rates for inmates who participated were actually a bit higher than those of a group of convicts who did not receive treatment, Inspector General Matt Cate said.

He said corrections officials were told in more than 20 reports since 1997 that the programs were failing but did nothing to fix them, choosing instead to expand them and fund more studies of their results.

Successful treatment programs could increase public safety, "change lives and help relieve the state's prison overcrowding crisis," Cate said in releasing the 50-page special review. "But so far the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has squandered that opportunity."

The Office of the Inspector General is an independent state agency that oversees the corrections department.

In anticipation of the scathing report, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday ordered a shake-up of the department's drug treatment operation and put someone new in charge.

Kathryn Jett, director of the California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs since 2000, will lead the reorganized division within corrections. The governor called Jett, 53, "the right person at the right time to take on this critical responsibility."

Cate applauded Jett's appointment and the governor's "willingness to address this problem at its very foundation. What I didn't want was a patch job, because this is such a total failure," he said.

Jett said she welcomed the challenge of improving outcomes for drug-addicted inmates -- and for taxpayers.

In an interview, she called the inspector general's report "an excellent blueprint for change" and said she took the job because of the governor's "strong commitment to reform."

One in five inmates in California is serving time for a drug offense, and an even larger proportion -- more than half of the 172,000 men and women behind bars -- need drug treatment, the inspector general said.

California's recidivism rate, meanwhile, remains among the highest in the country, with about 70% of inmates returning to prison within several years of their release.