With over two million people incarcerated in the United States, at a cost of over $60 billion in 2010, a new component must be added to the criminal justice system, say Robert Weiner and Daphne Baille. Weiner, a former spokesperson for the White House National Drug Policy Office, and Baille, who works as a communication director for Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, propose a solution to combat a problem that has been ineffectively dealt with during the decades-old “War on Drugs.”
Using information such as Birmingham, Alabama’s ability to stop construction on a new prison in 1995 by providing a drug treatment for arrestees who need it, and the fact that inmates from the Sheridan County (Illinois) Correctional Center who completed substance abuse treatment after release were 40 percent less likely to be rearrested, and 85 percent less likely to go back to prison, Weiner and Baille suggest that treating inmates while they are incarcerated will help to cut recidivism rates and budgets.
Not everyone agrees with that premise. When Weiner and Baille asked the warden of the notorious Attica Prison if his institution had a substance abuse treatment program, he replied, “We are not a drug prison.” Weiner and Baille contend that, “Every prison needs to be a “drug” prison that provides treatment. Only then will we end the overcrowding and recidivism.” They believe that treatment for substance abuse should be mandatory throughout the American prison system.
In a recent article in the Chicgo Sun-Times, Weiner and Baille point out the Urban Institute report citing that out of 1.5 million people who were arrested and met both medical and legal standards for “drug courts, only 55,000 were afforded treatment. If all of the 1.5 million who qualified for treatment and supervision actually obtained it, a savings of $46 billion would have been realized. The financial gain is not the only reason Weiner and Baille advocate for substance abuse treatment over prison, public safety is another key factor. The Urban Institute report also states that those under the influence of drugs have a crime rate that is four to six times higher.
Weiner and Baille, that in Illinois almost every court can be considered a “drug court” because Illinois law enables nonviolent offenders to request supervised substance abuse treatment, instead of prison or jail. Since it costs the state of Illinois $18,000 a year to incarcerate each person, the savings to the state would be phenomenal if that option was actually available. According to Weiner and Baille, Illinois cut substance abuse treatment funds 22 percent in 2009, and another 8 percent in 2010.
After the November elections, the so-called called “Deficit Commission” (President’s National Commission on Fiscal Reform) will meet in Washington, D.C. to come up with a plan to reduce our nation’s huge deficit. A start would be to provide substance abuse treatment in prisons, and as an alternative to incarceration. A UCLA study found that every dollar spent on treatment yields a saving of $7 in reduced crime, as well as other benefits. Weiner and Baille urge Congress to double the $5 billion already allotted for treatment and prevention, both inside and outside of prison. The $5 billion, if doubled, say the duo, will eventually render a savings of $35 billion. Along with Weiner and Baille, House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers is also a vocal advocate for treatment instead of prison. Supporting the drug courts’ ability to keep people out of prison, Conyers proclaimed, “There is more attention to law enforcement than treatment of the drug problem as a health crisis.” Congress now has the opportunity to remedy that situation.
Source: Chicago Sun-Times
|
|
|
|
