Until such unlikely time that the sinister chemical of crime is removed from the brain, or the DNA of criminal orientation is discovered, society is plagued with the high cost of penal codes in carrying them out. What with the fiscal crunch of the fifty states, the trend has been “early release” without little back up insuring against recidivism, including drug and alcohol related behavior. Though shortsighted the trend does free up crowded prisons and reduces state budgets on an average of $20,000 annually per release.





All too often, however, without sufficient resources to assist the released, the result is a more costly return to imprisonment. It seems there is an element of “Catch 22" in this; not really, for statistics show that the cost of efficient rehabilitation monitoring is but 10% of the cost of confinement.





Still, there is a better way: such as, why incarcerate—and increasingly longer sentences— for narcotics abuse as many citizens and officials question? There is no question, though, that these addicts are usually arrested as suspects of possession or worse, in perpetrating a crime or even a threat—either way the violators’ environment is questionable. Cracking down on these environments are devastating to the innocent in the community and tantamount to the SWAT approach to terrorists. Nevertheless, it takes but one mugging for the cry to go out—rightly so by those who have experienced the trauma of one—throw away the key.



Surely, the criminal intent lurks even in the so-called non-violent if he or she has exhausted conning friends and family. Once the money runs out, most of the time a criminal act will surface. So what is the solution? The Drug Court—predicated on Children’s Court approach— is one of them that has been successful to ward off addicts imprisonment. Clearly, though, the prerequisite is contriteness out of the fear of being criminally charged and the promise to improve, but even here is the subterfuge of cunning if the addict is left to himself—the family can be deluded into thinking its support will lead to solution.



The answer is in free halfway houses that definitely give the addict a good or sour taste of what it means to be responsible. Those with criminal records, however minor, should be placed in stringent boot camps. The hardened criminal addict or pusher should be immediately drafted into the armed services but placed under armed work detail and possible solitary confinement until ready for basic training.



These alternatives—in themselves costly but not prohibitively— would definitely help the fiscal crisis of supporting the high cost of prisons bursting at the seams.