In Johnson v. Municipal Court (1977) 70 Cal. App. 3d 761, the county established an alcohol detoxification facility under an experimental program designed to provide civil custody as an alternative to criminal prosecution for persons arrested for public intoxication. The defendant was arrested, but there was no more space at the facility, so he was put in jail and later prosecuted. The defendant claimed he was denied equal protection, but the court disagreed. The court explained that the statute authorizing counties to establish detoxification facilities, if they chose to do so, represented "an experiment in an effort to devise a method of dealing with the problem of alcoholism. Jailing of inebriates has been recognized as a futile sort of 'revolving door' solution. Doubts as to efficacy of the experimental alternative can be resolved only by trying it. We find no denial of equal protection in such an experiment. The state is not required 'to strike at all evils at the same time' . A legislature may 'take reform "one step at a time" ' The equal protection guaranty is not violated 'whenever officials "prosecute one and not another for the same act" . . .' but 'simply prohibits prosecuting officials from purposefully and intentionally singling out individuals for disparate treatment on an invidiously discriminatory basis.' " ( Id. at pp. 764-765.)