Should we send Drug Abusers to Rehab or Prison?
August 31, 2009 - 4:41 pm
$40000 vs $7000 per person per year. It cost a estimated 40 billion a year to keep non violent drug abusers in prison.
it seems like if you really wanted to be conservative this is one of the first places you would cut cost.
The way we fight the war on drugs does not work
You are correct that treatment is cheaper and in some studies, more effective. I think we’ve taken the ‘tough on crime’ act to a ruinous end. It’s long past time to re-think these policies for non-violent offenders.
August 31st, 2009 at 10:28 pm
Certainly, rehab should be required. The problem with no prison is that some of these guys have done some pretty bad things and do deserve prison. So, I advocate rehab, then prison, then parole with required participation in AA and surprise "drops".
Hey Olin why the thumbs down?
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August 31st, 2009 at 10:49 pm
There is a 20:1 benefit of rehabilitation prigrams versus incarceration. Thus it costs much less (and is more effective) to treat offenders rather than imprisoning them.
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August 31st, 2009 at 11:09 pm
Having personally been in rehab, and seeing that the success rate is 3% -7% (of which I was in that group) definitely, rehab instead of prison – even though the numbers of successes are low, it should be mandatory because sometimes it takes people 2 or 3 times to get it. Look at Robert Downey Jr.
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August 31st, 2009 at 11:19 pm
You are correct that treatment is cheaper and in some studies, more effective. I think we’ve taken the ‘tough on crime’ act to a ruinous end. It’s long past time to re-think these policies for non-violent offenders.
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September 1st, 2009 at 12:04 am
A real rehab. One that not only works with the whys and wherefores of addiction. Also the nutritional aspect of healing from the addiction. Also a bit of spirituality where they understand the empowerment of their own lives.
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September 1st, 2009 at 12:14 am
Definitely rehab. Prison only exasperates things. You can’t force a person to want to clean up. For those that do, rehab has a much better success rate. For those that want to quit, a 12 step based rehab program followed by continued participation in a 12 step program can work.
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September 1st, 2009 at 12:29 am
Personally, I am torn between this issue. I don’t believe that people who are victims of addiction should be placed in prison with hardcore violent criminals. But on the flip side, a drug user, just like any criminal, is breaking the law. Most drugs used by abusers are illegal and on legal terms, a crime is a crime, violent or not. However, I don’t support the idea of drug users receiving excessive sentences simply because addiction is difficult to quit and control. Also, in many cases, it is shown that rehabilitation for drug users is not successful. An individual has a greater chance at relapsing if they are sent back to the same environment where they first began using.
The fact can not be ignored that many convicted drug users are repeated offenders. So, with that being said rehabilitation would the necessary action for people with drug addictions. So in order to stop this process of repeated offenders, help is needed. Prison isn’t the correct treatment for drug users, because if it was, there wouldn’t be so many repeated offenders. In my personal opinion, I think rehabilitation for non-violent drug abusers should be determined on an individual based situation. The individual has to want help and want to put an end to their drug habit.
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September 1st, 2009 at 1:01 am
To send drug abusers to prison is simply beyond stupid. One cannot "moralize" about a person having an addiction.
Shall we send all the cancer and diabetes and high blood pressure patients to prison too?
Oh, and P.S? Drugs are more readily available in prison than they are on the streets. FYI
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