Prop 36 is in the news today. There is a great article today in the Los Angeles Times touting the tremendous success of the groundbreaking treatment instead of incarceration program in California.

DPA initiated Prop 36, co-drafted it, raised almost all the funding, and led the successful campaign resulting in overwhelming voter approval of the measure in 2000.

Most of the news coverage has been about how much money California is saving by offering treatment to people who struggle with drug abuse rather than locking them away. Indeed, the state has already saved $1.4 billion.

But I've been thinking today about the deeper impact of Prop 36.

So far 60,000 people have been kept out of jail through the program. The most striking thing to me is to think about the children of all those people. There are probably at least that many, if not far more, children in California whose parents are at home--and not in jail--tonight thanks to Prop 36.

I wonder whether, taking this into account, we are really 10-15 years away from seeing the most important impact of Prop 36. The impact 60,000-100,000 children who will be raised in a home with their parents who have been given drug treatment and who have been kept out of the state's prisons.

I imagine that will have quite an impact in California. Tens of thousands of children whose families would have been torn apart will now get a better chance to grow up with the love and support they deserve.

Saving money is great, but keeping families together, and providing treatment for those who need it, is the real success story of Prop 36.

It really is all about family values.