NCJ Number
176018
Journal
American Jails Volume: 12 Issue: 5 Dated: November/December 1998 Pages: 59-61
Date Published
1998
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The article summarizes the results of 90-day drug/alcohol treatment programs in five county jails in five different States.
Abstract
Studies included comparison groups of arrested persons who were not treated but had similar arrest, age, sex, and race traits as those treated. Three treatment groups showed an average of 49 percent reduction in recidivism; one showed 59 percent reduction; and one showed 66 percent reduction. If universal substance abuse treatment were achieved in county jails, an estimated 2,000,000 persons would be treated over a 3-year period at a savings of 10,000,000 arrests. The county jails must play a central part in this treatment role, for it is mainly in the county jails that the alcoholics and drug addicts first enter the correctional system. Treatment at the county level could greatly reduce the number of offenders sent on to State and Federal penitentiaries. Notes