If 70% or more of a jail population has been identified as having a drug or alcohol problem – that does happen – then what you’re really operating is a treatment center that happens to have bars on the windows and guards at the entrance.
Counseling involves staying alert to behavioral cues that can illuminate or even contradict what is said.
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I know the public gets upset when they read that DWI arrests are again climbing, but that’s often a good sign.
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I hate to see drunk driving convictions overturned for procedural errors, because I suspect that eventually, those fatality stats will reverse course and begin to climb again.
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Those of us who work in treatment quickly sense a problem: people with addictions aren’t likely to respond to this approach.
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…as one judge told me at a conference: “no matter how many jails you build, judges will fill them. It’s the easiest way to make this someone else’s problem, instead of ours.”
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The theory is that the more users we put in jail or prison, the fewer left out on the street. So why hasn’t that substantially reduced arrest and overdose statistics?
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Many of those programs treat opioid users without relying on medication, and yet manage to achieve remarkable success rates– sometimes 80% over a five year period.
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In many communities, the push to get the drinker or user “off the street” has turned the jail into an unwilling detox facility.
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…healthcare advocates have to work extra hard while proponents of a more punitive approach simply point to a crime committed by a drug user…
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It helps to remember that when it comes to crime, drugs and alcohol play a dual role.
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I suspect that the methodology for measuring success was far too narrow. Focused entirely on crime, they missed a host of other gains from participation in treatment.
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