Steele said about three-quarters of the state’s prison population were committed for nonviolent offenses. Buchanan cautioned how that phrase is used.

“Where I disagree is what constitutes a nonviolent offense or what constitutes an offender who is amenable to reform,” Buchanan said. “Not everybody wants to reform.”

In his district, Buchanan said he had an offender bond out of jail in 2018 for a nonviolent offense and, within one month, returned with at least two violent offenses. To some offenders, he said, nothing matters more to them than drug addiction.

State Questions 780 and 781 — which went into effect July 1 — reclassified drug possession and certain property crimes as misdemeanors and started a fund intended to use any savings from the reclassification and distribute those funds for rehabilitative programs and mental health treatment.

“In 23 days (July 1), and this is a prediction on my part, we’ll find out we haven’t saved anything,” Buchanan said.

Treatment facilities in his district are limited. The drug court program in Buchanan’s district, administered from his office, has a wait list around 800 long. The recent reforms have “done almost nothing” to provide alternative treatments, tools for which district attorneys yearn, Buchanan said.