Souder Secures $300,000 in Anti-Meth Funding for Indiana State Police

Souder Secures $300,000 in Anti-Meth Funding for Indiana State Police
Partnership for a Drug-Free America also Directed to Include Indiana in $3 Million Anti-Meth Media Campaign

WASHINGTON, D.C., Nov 9 - U.S. Rep. Mark Souder announced today that the Indiana State Police will receive $300,000 for anti-meth programs following today's House passage of the House-Senate conference report to H.R. 2862, the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2006. Working with Sens. Lugar and Bayh, Souder led the House delegation's request that the final spending bill include funding to reduce the State Police's case backlog and for meth treatment units in correction facilities. Souder voted for House passage of the final agreement, which passed the House by a majority of 397-19.

The measure also provides $3 million to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and it specifically directs the organization to include Indiana in its anti-meth media campaign, which is focusing on regions affected by the abuse, production and trafficking of meth, as well as regions likely to experience meth-related problems. Indiana is the only state guaranteed funding.

"We're currently working on a broad strategy in Congress to help eradicate meth production facilities—both local and foreign—and interdict meth traffickers, but we need to ensure that state and local law enforcement have the necessary resources to fight this epidemic," Souder said. "The funding in today's bill will help with the prosecution of meth offenders, and it will help ensure that they're clean when they're released from prison."

Part of the funding will be used to help alleviate the Indiana State Police drug testing backlog. There is currently an 8,500-case backlog at the Indiana State Police laboratory and approximately 20 percent of those cases are meth cases. It will also go towards a "ProsLink" computer system that will link prosecutors' offices in the state to the State Police lab, which will permit prosecutors to notify the lab in real time when a case has been disposed of so that the lab may remove those drug samples from testing and concentrate resources on meth cases going to trial.

The remainder of the funding is for the development of meth treatment units at nine state correction facilities. These units will assist offenders in recovery of meth and drug addiction and provide them with a positive environment in which they may learn the social and cognitive skills required to stay drug free and become productive citizens upon release.

http://souder.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=36821