Issues in Criminal Justice (JF)
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New Report on Growing Number of Substance Abusers in U.S. Prisons |
Study suggests that reducing incidence of abuse could decrease crime and prison costs.
By Kathryn Wiley|Published Date: March 02, 2010
At least 1.5 million inmates in U.S. prisons and jails qualify as substance abusers or addicts, according to Behind Bars II: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population, a new report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA).
The report states that another 458,000 have histories of substance abuse; were under the influence of alcohol or other drugs at the time of their crime; committed their offense to get money to buy drugs; were incarcerated for an alcohol or drug law violation; or shared some combination of these characteristics. Together, these two groups constitute 85 percent of the nation’s prison population.
The 144-page report also reveals that alcohol and other drugs are significant factors in all crime. In 2006, alcohol and other drugs were involved in these inmate offenses:
- 78 percent of violent crimes;
- 83 percent of property crimes; and
- 77 percent of public order, immigration or weapon offenses; and probation/parole violations.
The CASA report found that only 11 percent of all inmates with substance abuse and addiction disorders receive any treatment during their incarceration. The results show that if all inmates who need treatment and aftercare receive such services, and if 10 percent remained substance and crime free and employed, prison costs would break even in a year.
Thereafter, for each inmate who remained sober, employed and crime free, the nation would reap an economic benefit of $90,953 per year.
“States complain mightily about their rising prison costs; yet they continue to hemorrhage public funds that could be saved if they provided treatment to inmates with alcohol and other drug problems and stepped up use of drug courts and prosecutorial drug treatment alternative programs,” said Susan E. Foster, CASA’s vice president and director of Policy Research and Analysis.
Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA’s chairman and president and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, called the nation’s current prison policies, “Inane and inhuman. Between 1996 and 2006, the U.S. population grew by 12 percent. Over that same period, the number of adults incarcerated grew by 33 percent to 2.3 million inmates and the number of inmates who either met the DSM IV medical criteria for alcohol or other drug abuse and addiction or were otherwise substance involved shot up by 43 percent to 1.9 million inmates.
“The tragedy is that we know how to sharply reduce the costs of incarceration and the crimes committed by substance-involved offenders.”
The report also noted that in 2005, federal, state and local governments spent $74 billion on incarceration, court proceedings, probation and parole for substance-involved adult and juvenile offenders and less than one percent of that amount—$632 million—on prevention and treatment for them.
To download the report, click here.
For more information about the effects of drugs on crime and reentry issues, visit Justice Fellowship’s resource pages Drug Reform and Mandatory Minimums and Prisoner Reentry. |
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