By Susan Spencer-Wendel and Michael LaForgia
Sun-Sentinel
PALM BEACH, Fla. — Told to cut his budget, the Palm Beach County sheriff is threatening to slash a drug and alcohol program that treats thousands of people each year and long has been hailed as key tool in stemming violent crime.
Palm Beach County commissioners are debating whether to set a lower tax rate than initially was agreed upon, a move that would require them to cut about $7 million in their spending plan. That could put the sheriff’s Substance Abuse Awareness Program on the chopping block.
Confronted with paring about $3 million from his $480 million proposal, Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said the program, founded in the early 1990s and praised by judges and advocates, was the only big-ticket item he could lose.
“I only have two options. Cut deputy sheriffs or cut programs that I’m not mandated to do,” Bradshaw said, adding that his agency already was short-staffed and confronting greater numbers of calls. “If it gets to the point where the funding isn’t there, you just keep cutting back till you get to where just your basics are. And you hope you don’t get to that point.”
As part of the drug and alcohol program, inmates receive drug evaluations and treatment. Die-hard addicts who are most likely to commit more crimes are treated at the sheriff’s drug farm, a minimum-security, military-style camp near the South Florida Fairgrounds. It can house 114 people for about nine months.
In a letter sent to Chief Judge Peter Blanc last week, Bradshaw said his agency was closing the drug farm as of Oct. 1.
Judges called the decision a terrible loss. Circuit Judge Lucy Chernow Brown estimates she has sentenced more people to the drug farm than any other felony judge. She said she has seen the program change lives and prevent future crimes.
Brown said drug farm inmates typically are the county’s most violent criminals.
“These are people committing armed robbery and really serious crimes” to pay for their habits, she said. “At the drug farm, they really make progress and really turn around.”
Alton Taylor, executive director of the Drug Abuse Foundation, said the sheriff’s drug and alcohol program was a valuable option for treating a range of addictions. As part of the program, an estimated 3,000 jail inmates were evaluated for drug abuse each year.
It’s in jeopardy as county commissioners complete their budget. They tentatively set the countywide property tax rate at just over $4.34 for each $1,000 of taxable value.
But several commissioners have said they would reduce that number before finishing the county’s budget next month. Some on the board have proposed a rate of $4.29, which would require the commission to cut another $7 million for the county’s spending plan.
A little less than half of that money would have to come out of the sheriff’s budget.
Commissioners will vote to set the tax rate in September.
Copyright 2009 Sun-Sentinel Company