NCJ Number
196553
Date Published
2000
Length
278 pages
Annotation
This book critiques the current trends toward longer sentences of incarceration for alcohol and drug offenders and recommends a treatment approach as being more cost-effective and humane.
Abstract
This book is based in extensive published statistics that show jails and prisons are largely ineffective in rehabilitating criminals, especially those whose crimes originate in drug abuse or mental illness. The authors, a sheriff and a mother who each have drug-addicted family members caught up in the criminal justice system because of drug addiction, plead for a more effective strategy for dealing with nonviolent, drug-addicted people. The first two chapters trace the history of the addictions of the two family members of the authors (the sheriff's mother and the mother's son). These chapters are followed by two chapters that discuss the nature of addiction and why jails and prisons make addiction worse. The remaining chapters focus on correctional regimes that emphasize treatment as the most effective and humane means of managing drug-addicted persons. Specific approaches discussed are the use of therapeutic communities and drug courts. One chapter profiles Arizona's citizens' mandate (Proposition 200) that first- or second-time drug offenders charged with simple use or possession be given treatment instead of prison. By public edict, Arizona has thus become one of the leaders in treating a majority of drug offenders with a variety of programs that exclude the use of jail and prison. The concluding chapter emphasizes the importance of aftercare that focuses on securing jobs for drug addicts returning to the community after treatment. Chapter notes and a subject index