Yet, a new book calls this conclusion into question.
A summary here:
"America’s growing reliance on drug courts is an ineffective allocation of scarce state resources. Drug courts can needlessly widen the net of criminal justice involvement, and cannot replace the need for improved treatment services in the community. Of the nearly 8 million people in the U.S. reporting needing treatment for drug use, less than one fourth of people classified with substance abuse or a dependence on drugs and/or alcohol receives treatment, and for those who do receive treatment, over 37 percent are referred by the criminal justice system.
"While drug courts may be a better justice system option than incarceration, they are still a justice system approach to a public health issue. Drug courts also are not the most effective way to help people who are struggling with addiction, and in many ways, only serve to “widen the net” of U.S. criminal justice control, which now stands at about 7 million people either incarcerated or on probation or parole.
"Certainly, drug courts can and do help some people who are drug dependent and who are engaged in illegal behavior. The questions that this report seeks to answer are why we have drug courts in the first place, whether we should continue to utilize and expand drug courts, and at what expense—in terms of both direct costs or opportunities foregone."
http://www.justicepolicy.org/research/2217
Seems like a thoughtful analysis - have you read the book?
ReplyDeleteI've sat in on drug courts, mental health courts, and prostitution courts and the drug court is obviously the least effective diversion program - likely due to the fact that mental health and prostitution are more so behaviors than addictions, though the financial gain of prostitution is arguably addictive. The same people just show up over and over again. The courts usually force the individual to drug test weekly without providing them with any support process. As the individual begins to test clean, their lawyer can ask the court to move their testing from once a week to bi-weekly, then once a month, and finally random testing at random intervals. Usually, most defendants will either continue testing dirty and be incarcerated or they will test clean for a while before eventually relapsing - essentially the jails and halfway houses become too crowded. The majority of people in prison today are for reasons related to drug abuse. 30% of police chiefs across the nation cited "reducing drug abuse" as the sole problem in easing the burden on our courts and prisons. Obviously we need to target the root of these people's addiction instead of merely suppressing it as a band-aid solution for a short period of time before they inevitably become caught up in the judicial process.
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