All California counties should offer medical treatments to people arrested for drug possession instead of putting them in jail because it would lower incarceration rates and keep targeted minorities out of the prison system.

Recently, Contra Costa County experimented with waiving minor drug offenses in an effort to divert some work from the overloaded justice system.

Contra Costa County District Attorney Diana Becton, said the idea is to keep low-level recreational users out of the criminal justice system and get them into the healthcare system, with the goals of reducing the strain in courts and on law enforcement and also by providing treatment options in a Sept. 24 KTVU Fox 2 article.

Bringing a program that helps minorities that were convicted back up on their feet would be extremely beneficial.

Santa Clara County was the first county in California to implement a policy like this. A June 24, 2019, KPIX 5 article estimates that it could keep 80% of drug offenders in Santa Clara County out of jail.

Having this goal potentially ensures that convicted drug offenders would get a second chance to redeem themselves, which is a turn in the right direction.

According to a Jan. 14, 2009 article published in JAMA, an open-access monthly medical journal, treating drug-involved offenders provides the opportunity to decrease substance abuse and reduce associated criminal behavior.

In the past, many people served jail time for low-level drug offenses. Still, in several California areas, county officials passed legislation to lower the number of people in prison for recreational drug use.

Last year, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a news release on April 29 that it would stop prosecuting people that have been charged with small drug offenses and instead treat it as a health issue.

By treating it as a health issue, California taxpayers could save on money that would usually go toward paying for things like inmate healthcare, prison operations and record keeping. 

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, it costs about $81,000 to incarcerate an inmate in California versus about $2,000 to provide drug offenders with medical treatment.

Getting treatment for health issues can be a solution to keep people out of jail.

Cindy Chavez, supervisor and chair of the Santa Clara County Reentry Network, commented on using treatment instead of incarcerating drug offenders.

“Our Reentry Center’s innovative approach has a proven record of success,” said Chavez in a County of Santa Clara news release. “Our county recidivism rate, reported in 2015, is 34% – just about half of the national rate of 61%.”

Santa Clara County Reentry Network is a network of multi-faith religious institutions, community organizations and volunteers who provide transitional services for newly released inmates.

The network’s success in helping reduce recidivism rates has been a tremendous help in keeping people off the streets and getting them the medical attention they need.

Every California county should waive recreational drug offenses. Latinx and African American people are more likely to be arrested for possession of a low-level drug than white people because of racial profiling.

According to a June 27, 2018 article by the Center for American Progress, a liberal public policy organization, “Black Americans are four times more likely to be arrested for marijuana charges than their white peers.”

By transitioning from punishing drug offenders with jail to helping them with medical services, it would help reduce the disparity of minorities in jail, who make up the majority of arrests for drug offenses.

In an April 29 County of Santa Clara news release, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said that it has “cleared or reduced” more than 9,000 charges for the use and low-level sales of marijuana convictions.

For the County of Santa Clara, taking action regarding low-level drug possession for drugs such as marijuana was an excellent step.

Before April 2020, the county had more than 13,000 marijuana convictions that dated back to 1973, according to the April 29 Santa Clara County news release.

Providing this information to the public shows that the county is willing to make a change in the community.