TNC
11-27-2004, 09:09 PM
Journal Views
Treating drug abuse would save money, preserve families
In the race for Bannock County sheriff and prosecutor, there was one area where everyone agreed: We need more places to treat drug addicts in our community.
Road to Recovery and other organizations provide needed care, but they're swamped. Drug courts have shown some success, but they're for a limited number of people and can provide only outpatient care.
The current alternative? Incarceration.
In October, nearly 25 percent of inmates in Idaho's prison system were drug offenders and another 5.2 percent were in prison or a county jail on an alcohol-related crime. Nearly 2,000 addicts are sitting in Idaho cells right now.
In the probation and parole system, 35 percent of people were convicted of drug offenses. That amounts to more than 3,600 users, equal to a town the size of Soda Springs.
Last month, 54 people with drug convictions left Idaho's correctional system. If they follow national, decades-old trends, many of them will reoffend sooner or later.
If they are convicted of a felony, abusers can go to prison, where there are several choices for substance-abuse treatment, including a 90-day residential program where they are separated from the rest of the prison population.
But with the number of prisoners who need treatment, there are waiting lists. While they wait, we pay.
In 2003, it took $44.93 in general fund tax dollars to house one prisoner for one day in Idaho.
Prisons are expensive, and they take money from equally-important needs such as schools.
For the most part, these are non-violent offenders who, with treatment, could eventually become contributing members of society. Instead, many are wasting their lives in prison while their families struggle without their income and their children grow up without their parents.
Treatment works, according to a Columbia University study of Brooklyn, N.Y.'s "Drug Treatment Alternative-To-Prison" program. Participants in the 15-to 24-month program had 36 percent lower reoffending rates within two years than those who went to prison. More than half of the participants graduated, and graduates were 87 percent less likely to return to prison, and 3.5 times more likely to become employed than before their arrest.
The total cost was cheaper, too. The average cost of placing the offender in treatment, including vocational training and support services, was about $33,000, compared to the $64,000 that would have been spent on the individual in prison.
Southeast Idaho, especially counties and health districts, needs to think long-term. We can save money and save families if we do.
http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2004/11/12/opinion/opinion01.txt
Copyright © 2004 Pocatello Idaho State Journal
P O Box 431 Pocatello, ID 83204-0431
Treating drug abuse would save money, preserve families
In the race for Bannock County sheriff and prosecutor, there was one area where everyone agreed: We need more places to treat drug addicts in our community.
Road to Recovery and other organizations provide needed care, but they're swamped. Drug courts have shown some success, but they're for a limited number of people and can provide only outpatient care.
The current alternative? Incarceration.
In October, nearly 25 percent of inmates in Idaho's prison system were drug offenders and another 5.2 percent were in prison or a county jail on an alcohol-related crime. Nearly 2,000 addicts are sitting in Idaho cells right now.
In the probation and parole system, 35 percent of people were convicted of drug offenses. That amounts to more than 3,600 users, equal to a town the size of Soda Springs.
Last month, 54 people with drug convictions left Idaho's correctional system. If they follow national, decades-old trends, many of them will reoffend sooner or later.
If they are convicted of a felony, abusers can go to prison, where there are several choices for substance-abuse treatment, including a 90-day residential program where they are separated from the rest of the prison population.
But with the number of prisoners who need treatment, there are waiting lists. While they wait, we pay.
In 2003, it took $44.93 in general fund tax dollars to house one prisoner for one day in Idaho.
Prisons are expensive, and they take money from equally-important needs such as schools.
For the most part, these are non-violent offenders who, with treatment, could eventually become contributing members of society. Instead, many are wasting their lives in prison while their families struggle without their income and their children grow up without their parents.
Treatment works, according to a Columbia University study of Brooklyn, N.Y.'s "Drug Treatment Alternative-To-Prison" program. Participants in the 15-to 24-month program had 36 percent lower reoffending rates within two years than those who went to prison. More than half of the participants graduated, and graduates were 87 percent less likely to return to prison, and 3.5 times more likely to become employed than before their arrest.
The total cost was cheaper, too. The average cost of placing the offender in treatment, including vocational training and support services, was about $33,000, compared to the $64,000 that would have been spent on the individual in prison.
Southeast Idaho, especially counties and health districts, needs to think long-term. We can save money and save families if we do.
http://www.journalnet.com/articles/2004/11/12/opinion/opinion01.txt
Copyright © 2004 Pocatello Idaho State Journal
P O Box 431 Pocatello, ID 83204-0431