- Should all inmates serving time for drug-related crimes receive treatment for drug addictions?
- What are the benefits and disadvantages (to individuals and to society) of rehabilitating criminals?
- Which crimes can be defined as "drug crimes?"
Drug offenders make up roughly 49% of inmates who are incarcerated in the United States. This means that there are millions of people who are currently serving time for issues related to drug possession, the sale of drugs, and violent drug-driven incidents. As prison overcrowding is a huge issue in our country, it is vital that we find a way to reduce the number of people who serve time in jail.
There is substantial evidence that treatment for drug and alcohol addictions reduces recidivism rates drastically. Research conducted by the U.S. Justice Department showed that 53% of drug users who were on probation but received no treatment recidivated within four years of being released from prison. Probationers who completed treatment had a recidivism rate of 37% within four years of their release from prison. Many argue that other factors such as gender, age, income, and education level are much more influential to an inmate's life after release. Regardless, research strongly suggests that those who are successful in completing long-term treatment after prison are much less likely to become incarcerated again.
Not only are fewer prison sentences generally less traumatizing for prisoners, they are much more cost effective for the public. It is estimated that if non-violent drug offenders were kept out of prison, Americans would pay only 1/6 of the money (in taxes) that currently goes toward keeping prisoners who committed drug crimes in jail.
The problem with determining who "deserves" time in jail comes from difficulty in determining how much of a crime was drug-related. For example, many prisoners convicted of violent crimes confess that they felt driven to engage in fights and violent behavior because they desired money for drugs. It is difficult to determine where a line can be drawn between crime and sickness from substance dependency.
Blog post response:
What are the societal benefits to treating criminals instead of incarcerating them? What are the drawbacks?
Related readings:
A New York Times argument for treatment and against incarceration:
"Rehabilitate or Punish"
A long read with research by the Justice Policy Institute:
Society would definitely benefit if non-violent offences like drug use and drug possession made criminals go through rehab instead of incarceration. If we have less people in prison our prisons would not be overcrowded and it would save tax payers millions of dollars. We can use that money to improve education or roads. It cost more money to keep a prisoner in jail than to educate a child and I think that should change. It would also help out society since the criminals that went through rehab programs were less likely to go back to prison for the same crime. Prisons were supposed to be correctional institutes but the only thing they seem to do is to make the prisoner come back. The only drawbacks is determining who needs to be in the programs. Drugs are categorized by offences there are people in prison for the most minor offences then there are people with the biggest offences to drug history. The only problem is knowing who to give rehab to.
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