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US Drug Courts Favor Treatment for Addiction Over Jail Time

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Drug courts allow those whose crimes are rooted in addiction to avoid prison and seek treatment. For some heroin addicts, this program was a life-saver.

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If you or a loved one is struggling from a drug addiction, you may have served jail time or could face jail time if your addiction to illegal substances continues. Illegal drug abuse is a serious problem in today's American society and many who enter or are currently in the criminal justice system struggle with drug addiction.

Is sending an individual to jail for illegal drug addiction after they are arrested the only option or are there other alternatives to keeping drug addicts out of prison?

Know The Facts

When a person is incarcerated with a drug addiction, their addiction does not simply disappear. Many underlying issues that stemmed from the addiction still remain, even after the individual serves their time and enters back into society.

An article from Newsweek approximates that of the nearly 2.3 million inmates in the United States today, roughly 50 percent of them have a history of drug addiction or substance abuse. This means that over 1 million individuals incarcerated are struggling with an addiction.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) also conducted their own study and found that in reality, there are actually around 1.9 million incarcerated individuals that have used illicit drugs. This is a growing problem that needs to be addressed by our healthcare workers, law enforcement officials, criminal justice system, families, and communities.

Drug Abuse And Crime

Drug addiction is a mental illness because it affects the way the human brain functions. Many incarcerated individuals also have other mental illnesses (such as depression or bipolar disorder among others). When an individual abuses any substance, it also impairs their cognitive functions, decision-making skills, and inhibitions. The decreased cognitive functioning increases the chances of committing crimes.

Around 73 percent of federal inmates and 83 percent of state prisoners have previously used illicit drugs

Drug abuse influences criminal offenses. Approximately 22 percent of federal inmates and 33 percent of state inmates were under the influence of drugs when they committed their crime

Of the approximately 800,000 individuals in the criminal justice system that needed or could have benefited from drug abuse treatment, less than 1/3 actually received treatment

The U.S. Justice Department mentions that 2/3 of all drug offenders released from jail will return to prison or jail within 3 years

Alternatives

The monetary costs associated with keeping inmates in jail are high, and for many drug offenders, jail time is ineffective for treating addiction. Many criminal justice facilities lack drug treatment program options. However, some states have instead opted to use drug treatment in lieu of incarceration for non-violent drug offenders.

When an individual is able to attend a rehab treatment facility, this has positive benefits and helps create a solid foundation on the road to sobriety. Choosing a rehab facility will allow individuals to establish a healthy lifestyle and will give them the help they need as they go forward in life.

Drug treatment has proved to be cost effective, as well. Maryland is one such state that is using drug treatment instead of incarceration. On average, costs for offenders started at $20,000 but decreased dramatically to $4,000. And the costs of drug treatment generally ranged from $1,800 to $6,800, which is substantially lower than incarceration.

California has also incorporated Proposition 36, which mandates that anyone entering the criminal justice system under non-violent drug-related offenses be given substance abuse treatment rather than jail time.

Drug Courts

Drug Courts are another alternative to jail time for drug offenders. In the United States, on September 2, 2014, there were 2,619 Drug Court programs currently operating, which also included the 156 Tribal Drug Courts. There were 201 Drug Court programs that were also in the process of being planned which also included 12 additional Tribal Drug Courts.

Adult Drug Courts in 2014 were currently operating or had plans to operate in all 50 states including Washington DC and places such as Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Northern Marina Islands. These Drug Courts planned to operate or were currently operating in 1,621 out of 3,143 counties in America.

Drug Courts programs are primarily designed to help drug offenders receive treatment by using the court's authority by changing individual's drug abuse behaviors. Eligible individuals agreeing to participate will be diverted to Drug Court programs at different stages of the judicial process in return for a potentially reduced sentence or even perhaps dismissed charges. The Drug Court programs are offered to individuals as another option instead of incarceration or probation.

Looking Ahead

Individuals struggling with illicit drug addiction need proper treatment. They deserve to be respected and treated as human beings. An individual sentenced for crimes relating to drug addiction is still a topic that is heavily debated among many taxpayers, politicians, law enforcement officials, criminal justice personnel, and legislators alike.

While drug addiction treatment should definitely be available to all, there still needs to be more focus on drug treatment for those who are currently incarcerated for drug-related crimes. We must keep in mind that treatment should be an option not only for those who seek to avoid jail, but also for struggling individuals that are currently incarcerated who have violent criminal offenses and do not have the option for Drug Court or other treatment alternatives.

Individuals currently incarcerated should have more effective drug addiction treatment options available to them while serving their sentence. While the main objective is to keep struggling individuals out of prison and getting them the help they need, the reality is that many struggling individuals are already currently in prison and also need help for their addiction. This is an issue and a reality we as a society must face as we continue to look for solutions as time moves forward.

Contact Us

Battling an addiction can affect many areas of your life. If you or someone you know is struggling with an illicit drug addiction or other types of addiction, the best thing you can do is seek treatment help. Contact us today at RehabCenter.net and we can help you find the right rehab facility that fits your needs.

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alternatives to keeping a drug addict out of prison

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Alternatives To Keeping A Drug Addict Out Of Prison

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If you or a loved one is struggling from a drug addiction, you may have served jail time or could face jail time if your addiction to illegal substances continues. Illegal drug abuse is a serious problem in today's American society and many who enter or are currently in the criminal justice system struggle with drug addiction.

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Anyone who had the misfortune of developing an addiction before the advent of modern substance abuse treatment was typically relegated to prison or an insane asylum, which was intended to force him or her into sobriety. Today's addicts aren't incarcerated simply for having this deadly disease, but there's a high percentage of inmates who are suffering from addiction and in need of treatment while in prison. Moreover, the population of addicted inmates continues to grow as more and more addicts get incarcerated. Many have noticed and studied this trend, hoping to better understand why addicts are so frequently involved in crimes that get them imprisoned. Making matters worse, the available evidence suggests that incarcerating people who suffer from addiction is actually more harmful than helpful.

The Relationship Between Addiction and Criminal Behavior

The effects of being addicted to alcohol or drugs are very well documented. In particular, the disease is known to cause behavioral changes that become more abnormal or atypical as the addiction progresses. At the onset, such atypical behaviors include changes in appearance and demeanor, but they become much more pronounced over time. One behavioral trend that has been identified indicates that those who suffer from addiction are more likely to commit crimes as the disease worsens. In fact, the effect of substance abuse on the national crime rate is considered one of the main reasons why the United States incarcerates more people per capita than any other developed nation ¹ with about one out of every hundred citizens currently incarcerated.

Out of all the crimes committed in the US, about 80 percent of those that lead to incarceration involve alcohol or drugs, and 60 percent of all people arrested for any crime test positive for at least one illicit substance at the time of their arrests. However, these statistics beg the question: Why are there so many crimes being committed by addicted offenders? It might seem that addicts are either uninhibited by intoxication or the fear of withdrawal trumps rationality and a sense of morality. ²

According to a study, crimes committed by addicts can be broken down into three distinct types that are distinguished by what motivates the crime. Use-related crimes occur as a result of being heavily intoxicated. In instances of use-related crimes, it's common for the addicted offenders to not realize they're committing the crime as it's occurring. The second type of crime is economic-related, which is committed as a means of funding one's substance abuse habit and includes prostitution and theft. Finally, system-related crimes are a response to the legal system and include production, transportation and selling of illicit substances. ³

Why Addicted Offenders Shouldn't Be Incarcerated

While it's generally understood why addicts are committing crimes that get them incarcerated, the next issue is whether or not incarceration is the best course of action. On the one hand, the penal system is predicated on the idea that those who commit crimes get punished accordingly. Therefore, the systemic response would be to try, convict and incarcerate an offender, addicted or not. However, there are a couple key problems with imprisoning those who suffer from addiction. First, incarceration has proven ineffective in preventing addicts from further abuse of alcohol and drugs. According to estimates, approximately 95 percent of incarcerated addicts will return to substance abuse after their release from prison and 60 to 80 percent of them will commit new crimes. ¹

Another major issue with imprisoning addicts is the fact that while incarceration may address the crime, it doesn't address the underlying problem or the disease that caused these individuals to resort to criminal behavior. Moreover, the majority of offenders with a history of substance abuse will return to abusing alcohol and drugs after release since their addictions weren't treated. There are also many who become addicts during their incarcerations due to the amount of drugs that are smuggled into prisons today. It's estimated that approximately 65 percent of prison inmates in the US meet the diagnostic criteria for addiction. However, only 11 percent of those individuals receive any form of treatment. It's clear that the punitive system is ill-equipped for dealing with the high rate of addiction among criminal offenders. Moreover, it's been found that incarcerated addicts usually return to substance abuse after they're released, ⁴ which makes the incarceration seem ineffective and pointless.

There's also the question of safety with regard to addicts who must go through withdrawal after being incarcerated. The most obvious problem with this scenario is the danger this poses. Although withdrawal doesn't always put an addict in danger, there can be situations in which withdrawal can be so severe as to put a person's health or even his or her life in jeopardy. Accordingly, there have been a number of reports of individuals dying from severe withdrawal while in prison. ⁵ Despite the dangers of detoxing without medical supervision, addicted offenders are regularly imprisoned without reservation and then left to their own devices, which should be considered criminally negligent.

Finding a Solution for Addicted Offenders

Of each tax dollar spent by the government on substance abuse, only 1.9 cents are used for addiction prevention and treatment while 95.6 cents are allocated to the punitive system. ⁶ However, the punitive system is so over-saturated because many inmates get caught in a vicious cycle. Without treatment that addresses the core issues, an offender will often get caught in a cycle of substance abuse, crime and incarceration. One potential solution is to give addicted offenders the option to complete a rehabilitation program in lieu of a prison sentence, which has been the goal of drug courts that have emerged in many jurisdictions throughout the US. ⁷

Additionally, there's an obvious need for effective rehabilitation programs to be offered in prisons where addicted offenders - who represent the majority of all prison inmates - would be much more likely to stay sober upon release.

Suffering from addiction is a very lonely existence, but nobody has to go through recovery alone. If you or a loved one would like more information about detoxification, addiction treatment options, call Rehab International and speak with one of our experienced, knowledgeable admissions coordinators. We can provide all the information and guidance you or someone you love might need to begin the recovery journey today. Getting sober doesn't have to be a dream. Let Rehab International help you make it a reality.

Sources:
1. The Facts on Drugs and Crime in America
2. Addiction Is Not a Crime But Can Lead to Them
3. ALCOHOL, DRUGS AND CRIME
4. Treatment or Incarceration?: National and State Findings on the Efficacy and Cost Savings of Drug Treatment Versus Imprisonment
5. FBI investigating inmate's death from drug withdrawal in Macomb County Jail
6. We can't afford to ignore drug addiction in prison
7. Drug Courts Are the Most Sensible and Proven Alternative to Incarceration: So What's the Problem?
Written by Dane O'Leary

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Why Imprisonment Is More Harm Than Help to Addicted Offenders | Rehab International | Drug & Alcohol Rehab Guides

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Anyone who had the misfortune of developing an addiction before the advent of modern substance abuse treatment was typically relegated to prison or an insane asylum, which was intended to force him or her into sobriety. Today's addicts aren't incarcerated simply for having this deadly disease, but there's a high percentage of inmates who are...

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Inmate graduates posing with their substance abuse program completion certificates.

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Community Treatment Services is the reentry effort of the Psychology Services Branch. CTS, formerly known as Transitional Drug Abuse Treatment or TDAT, provides continuity of care for offenders placed in Residential Reentry Centers (RRCs) and on Home Confinement. Research has found this period to be the most vulnerable time for an offender to relapse into substance use and/or criminal behavior.

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Katelynn Lahman had just fired a shot of heroin into her arm when she decided to call her hometown's chief of police.

Lahman, 20, had been on heroin for nine months, funding her habit with petty crimes. She finally decided to seek help, she said, but was unable to find a place that would take her.

"(The police chief) was like, 'What if I tell you I can get you into a detox tomorrow morning?'" Lahman recalled. "I said, 'OK, that's fine.' So literally, 8 o'clock in the morning, I go to detox because (police) show up."

So began this small town's radical reimagining of how police can best fight the growing scourge of heroin addiction. Following a model created in Gloucester, Mass., Dixon cops fast-track a user into treatment if he or she comes to them asking for help. They'll even dispose of the person's drugs or paraphernalia without pressing charges for possession.

The idea is quickly catching on among departments in the Chicago area. Rolling Meadows police introduced a similar program earlier this month, and other suburbs plan to roll out their own versions soon.

So far about two dozen people in Dixon and surrounding Lee County have taken the offer since late August. Police Chief Danny Langloss said the results have been mixed, and that he expects many of those who enter treatment with the help of police to relapse.

But he said that won't affect his department's willingness to continue to help those in the grip of addiction.

"They're a person," he said. "They just need help. And what we've done for years hasn't helped."

Dixon, a city of 15,000 about 100 miles west of downtown Chicago, is best known as Ronald Reagan's boyhood home or, more recently, as the town fleeced for $54 million by its former comptroller, Rita Crundwell. But like many small communities, it is dealing with an escalating heroin crisis as the widespread abuse of prescription painkillers has led some to seek a cheaper and even more powerful opiate.

The problem in Dixon reached a dreadful peak in February, when three people died of overdoses within two weeks. Residents and government officials met to devise a response, which included a well-attended public forum on heroin, a hotline for people seeking treatment and sessions to train people in the use of naloxone, an overdose-stopping medication.

But the boldest step came when Langloss and Lee County Sheriff John Simonton decided it was time for law enforcement to try an approach developed by Gloucester police Chief Leonard Campanello. He announced in May that people who brought their drugs and needles to the police station and asked for help would immediately be ushered into treatment at a local rehab facility.

Since then, Campanello says, 260 people have gone through the program, and property crimes have gone down significantly.

"This is not something we can arrest our way out of," he said. "Addiction is not a crime, it's a disease, and police can be a voice to facilitate treatment for people who are suffering."

The idea has spread rapidly on the East Coast, but Dixon and Lee County appear to be Illinois' first adopters. Their program works like this:

An addict who comes to the police station asking for help can turn in his or her drugs and paraphernalia without being charged. Police then call volunteers - some former drug users themselves - known as Safe Passage guides, and those volunteers come to the station to help explain the program and fill out an intake form.

Once that's done, two volunteers drive the addict to one of several rehab facilities that have agreed to give priority to people coming from Dixon and Lee County. The entire process takes as little as two hours, compared with wait times that often last for months for uninsured people trying to get into treatment on their own.

Alison White, 25, is one of those Safe Passage guides. Clean for four years from a prodigious crack and heroin habit, she said she understands the fear and wariness of those reaching out for help and often answers questions on the ride to rehab.

"The biggest thing I've seen change is that addicts are seeing someone cares about them," she said. "They feel they've burned every bridge, no one cares. The cops are starting to care, and that's a strange thing. It's a strange thing for me, too."

The offer isn't open to people who have been freshly arrested - the theory is that those who seek help on their own will be more likely to succeed in treatment - and it doesn't erase any warrants or pending charges an addict might have.

Simonton, though, said prosecutors are willing to postpone the courtroom reckoning until after the person has completed treatment. And should the person relapse, he said, the authorities are happy to lend a hand once more.

"We've had it happen," he said. "We realized going into it that we were not going to have that success rate the first time through. We're understanding of that to an extent. If they still have the drive and the willpower, we'll help them through it."

Neither Dixon nor Lee County pays for an addict's stay in treatment, leaving that to private insurance, state funds or Medicaid. Rehab centers also sometimes pick up the cost.

Yet as more departments adopt similar programs, Langloss worries that the state's treatment capacity won't be able to meet the demand. Mary A. Petersen of the Unity Point Health Robert Young Center in Rock Island, which has accepted seven patients from Dixon, said police and rehab centers will need to team up to lobby state and federal officials for more money.

"There are woeful gaps in funding for these individuals, and it does burden centers," she said. " ... It's much more cost-effective (to treat addicts) than for the government to incarcerate them and not treat the cause."

Other models, though, are less elaborate than Dixon's. Rolling Meadows police this month started guiding addicts to services already offered in town, including a methadone clinic and a Salvation Army rehab center. A medical marijuana dispensary has also promised to provide funding to help those struggling with cannabis abuse.

Police Chief David Scanlan said three people have entered the program since it began a few weeks ago, but he hopes that even small numbers will make a big difference on the street.

"Because these people have a tendency to become one-man crime waves, we can reduce some of the property crime we see in some of our neighborhoods by getting them into treatment," he said.

It's too early to gauge how Dixon's program has affected its crime rate, or even to predict the long-term success of its participants. But Katelynn Lahman said the Police Department's intervention has clearly set her on a better path, even if it has been a bumpy one.

She walked out of the first detox center she went to, upset that she wasn't allowed to smoke. But Langloss drove there to pick her up and quickly found her another facility. She later attended a residential center in Florida that agreed to pay for her treatment.

Lahman returned to Dixon in early October and has worked vigilantly on her sobriety, attending 12-step meetings and enrolling in an intensive outpatient program. Her mother, Kathy Ketchum, said while there's still tension around the house, her daughter appears to have made great strides in her recovery.

"I'm very grateful for this program," she said. "If it weren't for this, the only option I would have had was to wait for the phone call to get the pine box."
Twitter @JohnKeilman

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Police offer heroin addicts treatment instead of jail

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Katelynn Lahman had just fired a shot of heroin into her arm when she decided to call her hometown's chief of police. Lahman, 20, had been on heroin for nine months, funding her habit with petty crimes. She finally decided to seek help, she said, but was unable to find a place that would take her.

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The solution to the drug problem in this country is not locking up addicts. That is something we believe very strongly.

"You can't punish addiction out of someone. It's not going to happen." - Devens Hamlen, H&H Law Center Click To Tweet

The goal should be treatment and rehabilitation, this is the only effective and compassionate approach to our nation's drug problem. If you live in Maine, and you have a friend or a family member who has had contact with the police because of drug problems, we really encourage you to find a lawyer that may be able to help steer him or her away from jail and towards treatment. In the long run, that will be best for everyone. Best for the person struggling with addiction, best for the community, and best for the family.

In today's video, both founding partners Merritt Heminway and Devens Hamlen talk about the problem.

Here is a transcript of the video:

Coping with addiction, in and out of court

One of the things we've learned since the 70s here in Maine and in this country in general is that the war on drugs as we commonly understand it just doesn't work, it hasn't worked. What we do is we lock people up with addiction issues. Although many people here in Maine have understood that that that's not really the best solution to deal with drug addiction, the laws haven't adapted to that realization yet. And so possession of heroin in the state of Maine even if it's a teeny-weeny bit is a felony charge. And a felony conviction will mess with your life dramatically forever and ever.

I believe in my core that addicts or people who are possessing heroin or committing crimes as a result of an addiction shouldn't be going to prison. It's the wrong place for them. You cannot punish addiction out of someone. It's not gonna happen. It's just not gonna work. So what are we going to be left with after this guy goes to prison for two years. He's going to come out, maybe had been exposed to drugs at the prison, likely exposed to drugs, the question is whether he engages in them in prison. He comes out and he's in the same position that he was when he went in, probably worse. And ultimately the goal should be to treat him and rehabilitate him and not to punish him. And what I tell my clients is whether it helps your court case or not, it's going to help you, and that's important.

If you have a friend or family member who has had contact with the police around drugs and there are addiction issues there, I would really encourage them to contact an attorney as early as possible in the process. Often times if we can get the resources in place to address the underlying addiction issues we can get a much better results with the criminal issues, later on.

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You Can't Punish Addiction Out Of Someone - Heminway & Hamlen

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The solution to the drug problem in this country is not locking up addicts. That is something we believe very strongly. "You can't punish addiction out of someone. It's not going to happen." - Devens Hamlen, H&H Law Center Click To Tweet The goal should be treatment and rehabilitation, this is the only effective and compassionate approach to our nation's drug problem.

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Trying to change the mind set on drug crimes