Now, there is widespread agreement among treatment providers, correctional officials, and many elected officials that public health and corrections personnel need to use a multidisciplinary or systems approach and treat crime and substance abuse as interrelated problems instead of seeing them as isolated behaviors. We've had two systems. Horizontal integration, or coordination across agencies at the same community level, and better planning can change lives. By using such a collaborative approach, we can minimize the damage these substance-abusing individuals are doing to themselves and society. Further, we can accomplish these goals at a much lower cost than funding separate substance abuse and criminal justice programs.
Funding is key to making a systems approach work.
Currently, relatively little funding is allocated to treatment of addiction. Additional funds must be found for treatment. To make these funds available, local and state public safety and public health experts need to convince mayors, legislators, county executives, and governors that a systems approach to dealing with substance abuse in the justice arena is effective, saves money, and increases public safety. They also will work together to review policies that exclude the use of Medicaid funding for residential treatment. The preliminary results of the BTC program are encouraging, with compliance rates of 70 to 86 percent and a rearrest rate of only 1 percent.