What do you think: does jail time “straighten people out”, or is it dehumanizing and non-conducive to becoming and staying sober? I have heard people share at meetings how it helped them to find their bottom with drinking. But with opiods, it seems like a medical and multi-pronged social support solution is better than jail time. Great article by the NY Times from yesterday. I think jail time on top of addiction would make me lose hope… Glad that this woman found the support to pull herself out of it, and that NYT is shining a light here.
I feel like the prison system in the US is awful. Privatising prisons for profit is sick. The pipeline between students of color and prison is alarming. Way too many people are incarcerated for 1st time, non-violent drug-related crimes.
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I could write a novel on prison reform and the cost benefit analysis of jail vs. rehab, but I will put my soap box away for now. Simply put the recidivism rate is lower for someone who goes to rehab vs jail. That means less people reoffending. That means lower societal costs. Which means more money for other projects, or gasp! Put it back into treatment. Not saying that some addicts don’t deserve jail too (I should have been in jail), but give them treatment too. It’s for society’s benefit.
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They definitely should not have stopped her Suboxone when she was re-incarcerated. It shouldn’t have to be either-or in the prisons.
So it is to stop the peripheral crimes, not because it is good for the addict. Well, duh! But pretty da%n short-sited of us in the US to treat the drug epidemic this way.
Oh man, I didn’t read the article, but I might have to pull my soap box back out, even though I’m pretty sure we all have a similar opinion. Discontinuing meds is bullshit