Is Drug Court the Answer to Drug Addiction Related Crime?
Across the country, states and counties are implementing drug court as a way to help those who end up in court due to crimes they committed while under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol or crimes committed purchasing illegal drugs. Rather than jail time, drug court provides for drug detox and rehab instead. Those who successfully complete drug rehab will have their charges dropped. Those who relapse while on probation will go to jail.
So does it work?
Drug Court: The Benefits
For some, drug court is a godsend. Those who go off track and end up addicted to drugs like heroin, crystal meth, cocaine or alcohol may not realize how serious it is until they get arrested. Standing in front of a judge is a wakeup call like no other and getting ordered to drug rehab instead of jail may be exactly what is needed. For some, they wouldn’t have gone to drug rehab any other way. Others may not realize that they needed it but still learn something and end up getting clean in spite of themselves.
The benefits, of course, start with the person who is no longer addicted to drugs and alcohol. No longer a slave to fighting off physical withdrawal, they are free to get a job they like, go back to school, spend time with their families and enjoy their hobbies again without fear of drug overdose or health complications. Their loved ones benefit as well as society at large: it costs the taxpayers quite a bit of money to take care of the health issues that drug addicts suffer due to their addiction since few have health insurance and the cost of extra law enforcement is another drain on the city’s coffers. Additionally, drug rehab costs the taxpayers far less money than the same number of days spent incarcerated. Ultimately, everyone wins when one person stops using drugs and alcohol.
Drug Court: The Issues
There are a few problems that naysayers point out when discussing whether or not drug rehab is an effective choice over jail time. One is that one of the crimes provided for in drug court is possession of an illegal substance. Drug dealers often try to claim their own drug use as the reason for their possession of the drug just to fake their way through drug rehab provided by drug court, often picking up new customers along the way.
Others point to those who repeatedly relapse and end up in drug court multiple times in succession. Though there is no evidence that jail time would have been any more effective in curbing someone’s criminal activity, those who don’t believe in drug court point to “retreads” or people who consistently reappear before a judge due to crimes committed in order to perpetrate their drug addiction (commonly fraud, forgery, breaking and entering, petty theft, et cetera).
What Do You Think?
In general, the evidence seems to show that more people benefit from drug court than from jail time. What do you think? Is drug court worthwhile?
