This is my personal opinion which is supported by doctors as well, that it would benefit not only the individual that is incarcerated for illegal drug use, but tax payers as well to just send the offender to mandatory rehabilitation. I say this because more than likely the individual will obtain drugs once inside prison; therefore worsening the addition and lessening that person’s chance of being freed of their addiction.
In News Week article a Doctor by the Name of Josiah Rich, visits prison near R.I. and Providence to treat those who are locked up for drug abuse. He himself feels that the American prison system is failing to rectify the individual’s addiction.
In the U.S. prison system there are 2.3 million inmates, half of the prison population are there for drug related reasons (Carmichael). According to the article in News Week, individuals who have been jailed for drugs have proliferated since the early 1990s, in 2007 there were 197,700 arrests (Carmichael).
Our justice system is not seeking to rehabilitate these people, but to simply punish them, "out of sight out of mind. What happens when these people are released from prison, they can go back to using, if they are not already using will locked up.
Moreover, If they do not want to provide treatment to benefit the abuser, how about to benefit themselves? The U.S. justice system can stand to save money by sending the offenders to rehab. How much can they save? A whopping amount of "47,000 per inmate"(Carmichael), jeepers creepers that is a lot of moolah. I think the tax payers of America would prefer to rehabilitate them than incarcerate them.
Source:
Carmicheal,Mary. “The Case for Treating Drug Addicts in Prison” News Week on the web 26 November. 2010 < http://www.newsweek.com/2010/06/29/the-case-for-treating-drug-addicts-in-prison.html>
I do agree that persons who are convicted (first conviction) of crimes and are drug (or alcohol) addicted should be placed in mandatory rehab - the key word being mandatory - until treatment is complete. If the individual is released and then resumes using or commits another crime, then a mandatory jail sentence should be imposed. Going to rehab should not be just a way of avoiding serving jail time, and it must be realized that for some, rehab is not going to work. Those convicted of crimes must assume personal responsibility for their actions, addicted or not.
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