What Is a ‘Drug Offender’?
I have written before about Governor Chris Christie’s promising effort to move drug-addicted criminal offenders from prison to treatment. He is moving forward, with strong support from some Democratic State Legislators.
A group of us appointed to advise the effort had a great meeting at the Trenton State House a few months back. One of the things I said in my prepared remarks is that many people have some misunderstandings of what it means to send “drug offenders” to treatment rather than prison. Let me put some meat on the bones.
(1) Although plenty of drug addicted people are sent to prison for drug crimes (dealing being the most common, simple possession being incredibly rare), that doesn’t mean that all drug offenders should receive addiction treatment. Depending on the state in which you live, somewhere between a third to a half of incarcerated “drug offenders” don’t have a drug problem. They are called “drug offenders” not because of their drug use, but because they were arrested for being a drug dealer, mule, lookout etc. Jon Caulkins and I have argued that there may be a case for shortening the sentences of low-level players in the drug trade, but that’s a separate issue from whether they should receive addiction treatment: They shouldn’t, there’s nothing to treat.