Friday, November 07, 2008

Penny wise and pound foolish

What is there to say? This is just sad.

No recidivism rates were offered to provide context?

In Michigan, the two year recidivism rate for parolees is almost 50% and Washtenaw County is around 75%.

Three months of residential treatment costs about $8000 and they can then move into sober housing and pay their own way. Three months of outpatient treatment costs about $500. A year of prison costs $30,000. You do the math.

What drives this insanity? First we send them to prison in staggering numbers rather than offer help. Doing prison time assures that they lose nearly every shred of recovery capital and then we release them (Locally, often to the homeless shelter.) and cut back on treatment?

It's easy to explain this by pointing to short-sighted bureaucracies, but that explanation doesn't cut it. The truth is that they view it as willful misconduct and they hate addicts.

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