Incarceration Vs. Treatment for Drug and Alcohol Related Crimes

A recent story in the Frederick Post, Frederick, Maryland related the story of Nikki Pryor, a female drug addict and a mother of three children. On June 25, 2008, she was sentenced to 20 years in prison on new drug charges. Nikki, who began using drugs at the age of 13, is now 38 years. While she serves her time in prison, her family will be responsible for raising her youngest child, a four-year-old son.

Once again, a mother (or father) is separated from their children and family for a condition that can only be described as a disease. As a public health issue and not a criminal issue, incarceration only removes the person from the community and those who care about them. It does not cure the disease itself. These people need help, not imprisonment for something they have little control over in their daily lives.

Unfortunately, Nikki's story is like thousands of others across our nation. Children, who experiment with drugs and alcohol and then become addicted, continue to use the drugs into adulthood. In order to obtain their drug of choice, these people begin committing a variety of (usually) non-violent crimes to sustain their habit. They are often arrested and re-incarcerated numerous times over a period of years. Each time they are released back into society, they soon fall back into the same circumstances and the cycle repeats itself continuously unless they break the drug habit or die because of it.

While in prison, many inmates are able to take part in counseling, drug rehabilitation, education and more if the programs are available to them. Unfortunately, the support after being released is often not enough and insignificant in many cases and these people begin the cycle over again. With thousands of people in prison for simply using illegal drugs or for committing petty crimes to get drugs, the cost to the United States is overwhelming, exceeding billions of dollars every year. In 2005, the National District Attorneys Association found that in 2001, the annual expenditure for house exceeded $56,956,871,000. The rate increases with every incarceration of a non-violent criminal and continues to rise dramatically each subsequent year.

It is evident that the practice of imprisoning drug users has not decreased the numbers of those who use drugs. Nor does the threat of incarceration (or even death because of bad drugs) deter many others from trying them. There has to be a better way to help those who are addicted to drugs without incarceration. This better way does exist and is growing in popularity within all the states.

Many communities have opted for policies that divert non-violent drug users into programs where they can get the help and treatment they need instead of incarcerating them. California, Maryland, Georgia, and others have implemented new programs that encourage rehabilitation of drug offenders into drug free and productive members of society. The cost effectiveness of these programs has saved these states millions of dollars because they have decided not to penalize a disease, but to treat it instead. They have also realized that incarceration only punishes the offender for the crimes committed with little incentive to treat the disease itself. Many have finally understood these crimes are only a symptom of the disease itself.

According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) Drug Policy Information Clearinghouse, the cost to house one state inmate in 1997 averaged $20,674 ($23,542 for Federal inmates). Today, only 11 years later, it is closer to $34,000 a year. It has been estimated by some, to have at minimum, doubled in cost, especially for inmates like Nikki, who are sentenced to extremely long prison terms for a relatively minor crime. As they get older, the physical and mental health issues also escalate and each state is forced to provide and pay for medical care on its own because the inmates are not eligible for Medicare or Medicaid. This drives the cost of housing non-violent inmates up even higher.

At a recent US Conference of Mayors, a resolution was passed condemning the War on Drugs as being ineffective because it had not reduced the use of drugs or the demand for them. Instead, they have called for the $40 million dollar budget to be used for more drug treatment funding, distributed to be used at the local levels of government, and fund alternative incarceration programs. At the same time, they condemned the use of mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug offenders.

Some studies have indicated that up to 80 percent of those currently incarcerated in United States prisons is due to the use of drugs and that most of the crimes committed are done while under the influence of these drugs or to be able to obtain more. Many of the mandatory minimum sentencing guidelines require several years of imprisonment for criminals who had only a small amount of an illegal drug on their person. If a crime was committed in order to obtain drugs, often crimes such as pick pocketing or petty theft, those sentences go even higher.

As more facilities and programs are created and implemented to support and augment the facilitation and rehabilitation of drug and alcohol dependent users, the encouraging results indicate that these people can become useful, productive members of society and good role models for their children and peers. There is the added constructive advantage that these individuals will be able to find and hold a job, support their families and themselves. The additional social effects of having higher self-esteem, confidence in themselves and the ability to make right decisions can only benefit everyone.

There is no need to build new prisons just to warehouse non-violent criminals - if the term "criminal" can even be used for people suffering from a known and accepted disease. Another advantage is the reduced pressure placed on the criminal justice system through courts and prisons if the 80 percent of non-violent criminals are handled in alternative programs and not adjudicated to prison. The justice system will be better able to focus more on the seriously violent criminals and the heinous crimes they commit against law-abiding citizens in order to protect our society.

Sources:

A Mother, a Prisoner

Rehabilitation vs. Incarceration: Non-Violent Women Drug Offenders,By: Charon Schwartz

Reducing Harm: Treatment and Beyond

U. S. Mayors Call for Change, Drug Rehab Treatment Urged Versus Incarceration, Atlanta, GA 3/06/2008

Drug Treatment in the Criminal Justice System, March 2001

National District Attorneys Association