Substance Abuse Programs In Prison

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either nonexistent or are so poorly run as to be virtually ineffective. "The drug programs here are a joke," says a Sing Sing prisoner. "Guys who participate just do it to look good at the board. It's mandatory to get drug treatment if you have a drug crime. Bit the place where they give drug treatment is full of drug users and pushers."
Several studies sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse have shown that professionally run drug treatment programs, on the whole, are successful in reducing drug abuse and crime among participants and in increasing their ability to hold a job. Treating drug addiction medically rather than criminally is also more cost-effective.
Case in point: In New York State, a one-year residential drug treatment program costs less than $20,000 per participant, whereas incarceration costs the state nearly $30,000 per prisoner, according to the Correctional Association of New York.
Research and rationale aside, allocating money for the ...

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at the TV.
Snake Hill, a prisoner at Oklahoma State Reformatory.

Can I get anything I want here?
"Sure. But it depends on when you want it."
Prices?
"What are you looking for?"
Heroin.
"Fifty bucks will get you a shot of heroin.
About ten c.c.'s."
Interview with Anthony Goombi,
a prisoner in the Hole at Oklahoma State Reformatory
commenting on the drug trade there


According to Bureau of Justice Statistics, about three-quarters of all prisoners can be characterized as being involved with alcohol or drug abuse in the time leading up to their arrest. Roughly 59 percent of federal prisoners reported having driven an automobile or other motor vehicle at one time or another ...

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