NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY
1981 SESSION
CHAPTER 1119
HOUSE BILL 1370
AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE FUNDS FOR PROGRAMS WHICH REDUCE DRUG RELATED CRIME AND CRIMINAL RECIDIVISM AMONG SUBSTANCE ABUSING OFFENDERS.
Whereas, the Greensboro Drug Action Council and Drug Action of Wake County are mandated by contract with the Department of Human Resources, Division of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse Services to provide drug abuse treatment, prevention and intervention services to the people of the State of North Carolina; and
Whereas, these agencies are the sponsors of the Treatment Alternatives to Street Crimes (TASC) Program; and
Whereas, the goals of the TASC Program are to reduce drug related crime and criminal recidivism among substance abusing offenders by providing a mechanism for referral of appropriate offenders to community based treatment programs; and
Whereas, TASC benefits the treatment of substance abusers by improving client retention rates through criminal justice sanctions imposed, by using medical evidence to document the use of drugs by a client and by providing follow-up on the health, education, employment and avoidance of criminal activity by a client; and
Whereas, TASC benefits the criminal justice system by easing overcrowding in local jails by expediting pretrial release of offenders, by reducing jail medical crises through early identification of persons experiencing drug withdrawal, by providing the courts with objective assessment data and by providing a sentencing alternative to incarceration of substance abusers; and
Whereas, TASC benefits the community by reducing the costs of incarceration of substance abusers, by reducing the costs of processing and maintaining substance abusers, by reducing the costs of burglaries and other property related crimes and by assisting substance abusers to become productive, tax paying citizens; and
Whereas, TASC's annual cost per client is less than four hundred fifty dollars ($450.00) which is substantially less than the State's costs of incarceration of these persons; and
Whereas, TASC's success rate of sixty-five percent (65%) and recidivism rate of fifteen percent (15%) are significantly less than the State penal system recidivism rate of sixty-five percent (65%); Now, therefore,
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1. There is appropriated from the General Fund to the Department of Human Resources, Division of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services the sum of one hundred forty thousand dollars ($140,000) for the 1981-82 fiscal year for the purpose of contracting for programs which reduce drug related crime and criminal recidivism among substance abusing offenders.
Sec. 2. This act is effective upon ratification.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 10th day of October, 1981.