Just by eliminating nonviolent offenders from the prison population could total prison costs of 16.9 billion dollars as of 2010 (Schmitt, Warner, and Gupta 13). This has also had tragic impacts upon the health of injection drug users. This includes the disruption of the provision of health care to injection drug users (IDU) and increasing risk behaviors associated with infectious disease transmission and overdose (Kerr, Small, and Wood 210). Certainly, it makes sense to treat drug addicts out of jail where it will be more effective. Substance abuse education and awareness has become the most prevalent form of service provided in jails, being offered in 74% of prisons, 61% of jails, and 53% of community correctional agencies. The previous figure is as opposed to remedial education (89%) and jails (59.5%), sex offender therapy (57.2%) and intensive supervision (41.9%)

(Taxman, Perdoni & Harrison, 2007, 239). What it boils down to is that drug related services strip all others delivered in jail, taking money away from treating other offenders.

Conclusion

As this short essay concludes, the war on drugs is a failure. It causes more harm than it solves. Eliminating...

For this reason, this author advocates reform of the system to release at least non-violent offenders back into the public and channel money into treating addicts outside of jail where it is more effective.
References

Caulkins, J.P., and Chandler, Sara. "Long-run trends in incarceration of drug offenders in the United States." Crime & Delinquency. 52.4 (2006): 619-641. Print.

Kerr, T., W. Small, and E. Wood. "The public health and social impacts of drug market enforcement: A

review of the evidence." International Journal of Drug Policy. 16. (2005): 210 -- 220. Print.

Kuziemko, I., & Levitt, S.D. (2004). An empirical analysis of imprisoning drug offenders. Journal of Public Economics, 88, 2043 -- 2066.

Moore, L.D., and a. Elkavich. "Who's Using and Who's Doing Time Incarceration, the War on Drugs,

and Public Health." American Journal of Public Health. 98.5 (2008): 782-786. Print.

Schmitt, John, Kris Warner, and Sarika Gupta. The High Budgetary Cost of Incarceration. Journal of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2…