THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Monday, January 9, 1995                TAG: 9501050019
SECTION: FRONT                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Letter 
                                             LENGTH: Short :   30 lines

BOTH PRISON AND TREATMENT NEEDED

I am a substance-abuse specialist for a local services board. About 75 percent of all clients I screen for substance-abuse problems are referrals from probation or parole departments. According to these officers, 80 percent or more of their clients need treatment for substance abuse.

Yet Governor Allen proposes to cut the services-board funding by $6.6 million so he can build larger prisons to house the very clients who needed substance-abuse treatment but couldn't get it because of funding cuts. I'm for substance-abuse treatment in prison. However, the prison lifestyle does not offer a real-life experience where people constantly experience challenges to their sobriety. Substance-abuse treatment must continue beyond the prison's doors and into the client's community.

With Governor Allen's proposed funding cuts, our communities will suffer a serious lack of professional support for clients and their families. Then we will wonder why ``those people'' continue to use drugs, destroy families, clog our courts and drain our state's economy.

LEIGH NORTHRUP, M.S.W.

Norfolk, Dec. 30, 1994 by CNB