In 1996, about 840,000 state and federal inmates needed treatment, but only about 150,000 actually received it. From 1995 to 1996, according to a 1998 CASA report, the number of inmates who needed it rose by nearly 40,000, while the number who received it actually decreased by 18,360. Critics of our current policy focus argue that if we do not provide treatment for addicts, prison is only a revolving door for people who commit crimes for drugs, on drugs, or both. They say that the large number of arrests spurred by the U.S.'s drug policy has done little to stop people from selling drugs but rather has yielded a glut of drug users and dealers behind bars who are not provided the rehabilitation and coping skills they need to turn their lives around. A 1997 RAND Corporation report found that treatment is much more effective in reducing cocaine use and related crime than either mandatory minimum prison sentences or conventional law enforcement.
Experts also note that incarceration compares poorly to treatment in terms of cost to taxpayers.
Putting an addicted offender in a therapeutic community, a form of intensive, inpatient treatment, for a year costs only about half of what it does to jail him or her for a year. The Nation's Number One Health Problem.