Changing Our View of Addiction

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, in 2009, 50.7 percent of the inmates in United States federal prisons were there for drug offenses. This percentage represents an increase of 28.2 percent from 2000 to 2009. Just in case  you’re not convinced that these figures are problematic, let me give you some more.

Drug Incarcerations on the Rise:

With drug incarcerations rising so consistently, the decrease in releases from prison and re-incarceration for technical parole violations, there is a gargantuan  problem of overcrowding in state and federal prisons. In 40 out of 50 states, the prisons are at 90 percent or more over capacity. Twenty-three of those states are operating at over 100 percent capacity. How cou any addict become rehabilitated in an environment like that? It could, therefore, be surmised that nonviolent drug offenders enter prison with a drug problem and are paroled from prison with a drug problem. Only now, violence may have become part of the equation because of repeated exposure to violence while in prison.  

The Disease Concept:

The American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association use the disease-model approach to addiction. This is because addiction is chronic, progressive and fatal, if not put into remission. This is like cancer, but if you entered prison with cancer, you would receive chemotherapy, radiation and other aggressive cancer treatment. Even one the Manson Family murderers, Susan Atkins, received cancer treatment while in prison.

Drug Program Failure:

In California, the SAP (Substance Abuse Program) was an abysmal failure. While not going into the reasons for this failure, it must be said that though it didn’t work, there are other models of treatment that should be implemented until a successful one is found. Otherwise, we are going to waste more taxpayer money incarcerating drug offenders, releasing them and then re-incarcerating them for similar drug or drug-related offenses. To even a totally uninformed citizen, this revolving-door approach to drug addiction must seem entirely counter-productive.

Look at this quote from the Justice Policy Institute:

"Substance-involved people have come to compose a large portion of the prison population. Substance use may play a role in the commission of certain crimes: approximately 16 percent of people in state prison and 18 percent of people in federal prison reported committing their crimes to obtain money for drugs. 21. Treatment delivered in the community is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent such crimes and costs approximately $20,000 less than incarceration per person per year.22 A study by the Washington State Institute for Public Policy found that every dollar spent on drug treatment in the community yields over $18 in cost savings related to crime.23 In comparison, prisons only yield $.37 in public safety benefit per dollar spent. Releasing people to supervision and making treatment accessible is an effective way of reducing problematic drug use, reducing crime associated with drug use and reducing the number of people in prison." 

It is time to stop sending addicts to prison. Lowering recidivism will cut down on prison costs, elevate the status of addicts to people suffering from a disease, and it will cut down on crime.

Re-educate Society:

Why can’t society be re-educated in the disease-concept of addiction when it must be obvious to most people that the “Lock-‘em-up-and-throw-away-the-key” approach isn’t working and is a colossal waste of money that could be directed into solutions that do work.

Addiction is not a criminal problem or a failure of will. Rather, it is about biology and resultant behavior – a disease that society is treating like a crime.

Sources:

1.  Justice Policy Institute, "How to safely reduce prison populations and support people returning to their communities,"(Washington, DC: June 2010), p. 8. /www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-6_FAC_ForImmediateRelease...

2.  American Psychological Association, “What does it mean that addiction is a brain disease ,” Alan I. Leshner, Ph.D.; June 2001 http://www.apa.org/monitor/jun01/sp.aspx

3.  Get the Facts: Prisons & Drug Offenders; 2011 http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/63