THE CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
PRISON DRUG TREATMENT WOULD REVERSE OVERCROWDING AND REDUCE CRIME, RECIDIVISM, BUDGETS
Deficit Commission Recommendations
Should Heed Savings by Treatment and Conyers' Focus
By Robert Weiner and Daphne Baille
2.3 million Americans are in prison today--number one in the world. That's up from 500,000 in 1980 or 4 times more. Seven million Americans are now in the criminal justice system--incarcerated, on probation or on parole--also the most in the world. Imprisonment is one of the most expensive items of state and local budgets. The cost of incarceration in the U.S. is estimated at over $60 billion dollars a year.
Most of the increases are due to the prosecution of drug abusers starting in the 80s. Drugs were rampant during that time period; in 1980, 14% of Americans abused illegal drugs monthly. That number is now down to 8%, but a whopping 68% of arrestees test positive for illegal drugs, according to Justice Department surveys of 30 cities. The nexus of drugs and crime is undeniable.
There is a solution other than putting drug abusers behind bars--drug treatment. Despite the fact that 68% of arrestees test positive for drugs, only 14% of prisoners receive treatment.
Birmingham, Alabama was able to stop building a new prison when they instituted an arrestees' drug treatment program 15 years ago.
When we asked the warden's office at the famous Attica (New York) prison if they had a drug treatment program, the staff told us, "We're not a drug prison." The problem, is, every prison needs to be a "drug" prison which provides treatment if we want to stop overcrowding and recidivism.
Marc Mauer, the director of the highly respected Sentencing Project, called the prison-drugs recidivism cycle "a 25-year quagmire." The Sheridan Correctional Center , a medium security facility that houses male offenders 70 miles west of Chicago, found that prisoners who completed treatment after release were 40% less likely to be arrested a year later and 85% less likely to return to prison with counseling, job training, and supervision critical to this success.
Instead of mandatory sentencing for drug abuse, more drug treatment in prison and more "drug courts" providing treatment instead of prison should be what's mandatory.
The Urban Institute in 2008 reported that 1.5 million arrestees meet the legal and clinical standards for drug court, which require effective treatment and supervision. Yet only 55,000 arrestees are now receiving such treatment. If all 1.5 million at-risk arrestees were treated, there would be $46 billion in savings to society. The study reaffirms that crime is 4-6 times higher under the influence of drugs.
Former U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey calls support for drug courts everywhere in America "a no-brainer." We pay $25,000 a year to incarcerate someone; treatment costs a few thousand for an entire year, and many can stop after a few months as long as they have monitored counseling in prison and when they leave.
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