According to a recent issue of Addiction Science and Clinical Practice, Illinois is one of the states in the forefront of handling the intertwined negative effects of drug addiction and crime. Research and viewpoints drawn from actual successes on ways to improve criminal offender’s chances on freeing themselves from the vicious cycle of crime, drugs, recidivism and relapse are showing some really new ideas in the thought of how to handle addiction and get these convicted drug offenders some real drug rehabilitation which will, in turn, handle a lot of the legal situations that accompany addiction.
The numbers from the White House Policy on Drug Abuse really illustrate how important this is. It absolutely cannot be more needed for the state where we are seeing staggering numbers of crimes due to or linked to drugs. In Illinois in 2006, 113,000 drug arrests were seen in the state, while only 67,392 people were admitted into drug rehabilitation or detox centers in Illinois. Even more alarming is the 265,000 people in the state that admit to being addicted to the point of needing drug rehab but not being able to get the services they so badly need.
So, where do they end up? They end up wrapped up in the legal system and costing the state millions of dollars for housing inmates and keeping others on either probation or parole. Over 25 % of the inmates currently incarcerated in the state are in jail due to drug offenses and over 40% of all convicted criminals at the federal level are convicted of drug charges. That boils down to somewhere in the area of 20,000 people being held in the state, paid for by the tax payers, due to drug offenses. Another 176,000 convicted drug offenders are under legal restriction and monitored by the state either on probation or parole.
But there is some hope on the horizon. Using 20 years of studies that analyzed combined data from trials aimed at reducing recidivism or substance abuse, new patterns in dealing with the link between crime and drug addiction indicate treatment can be effective if the two are looked at as going hand in hand. In Addiction Science and Clinical Practice report on an effort to integrate correctional and substance abuse treatment to ensure public safety as well as recovery. Working with Illinois correction on one hand, and treatment providers on the other, TASC (Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities of Illinois) guides and coordinates clients’ care from arrest, through conviction, sentencing, incarceration, and parole/release in an effort to comprehensively deal with the issue of addiction and the direct correlation to criminal behavior. Complete, comprehensive care aimed at long term treatment through every stage of the process, produce benefit that are built over time on a gradient and lasting rather than short sporadic treatment that is broken up and sporadic and only temporary. This is definitely the first step in breaking the intersecting vicious cycles of criminality and addiction.
Even though we are at the beginning of what is a very large quest, at least there is hope for creative, real, organized, long term help starting to be offered to this huge problem. It is refreshing to see this obvious problem finally being addressed and being done so in a manner that will get results as opposed to see individuals go in and out of the revolving door of addiction and crime.