About 80 percent of people who are arrested and placed in prison abuse either drugs or alcohol. Of those who are in prison, about half are addicted to one substance or another. Placing someone in prison for addiction can seem, on one hand, like an excellent way to help decline  crime. After all, people who are locked up can’t steal from others, and they can’t help to the decline of the community as a whole. They’re removed from the situation, and in theory, that could help the community to heal in their absence. I on the other hand, disagree with this. I truly believe that people who use drugs should not go to jail, they should go to rehab, and get help.

Research suggests that jail isn’t always the best place for people who use drugs. In fact, it might be the worst place for some types of drug users.Our laws resulted in a huge increase of people in prison for offenses due to drugs. In fact, in one analysis of the current federal prison system, authors suggest that drug offenses account for more than half of all the charges are against prisoners. By contrast, only one percent of prisoners face homicide charges.Putting people in prison is remarkably expensive, and long sentences mean big bills that last and last. In 2008 alone, states spent $47 billion on corrections.That’s money that could be spent on a number of other  community needs such as: Education, clean water, and antiterrorism.

More than 75% of teens that go to juvie tested positive for drugs, and 50% of those same teens ended up in jail/prison in the next 3 years. Being “locked up” does not help teens/adults in any way.Seattle is trying something different since 2012, the city's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program (LEAD) cuts out the criminal justice middleman. Instead of jailing people struggling with addiction, officers connect people directly with the treatment and services that can actually help them get sober.Instead of wasting time and money with a court hearing and hurting people with a criminal record before they can access treatment and services, LEAD doesn't waste time. And unlike drug courts, LEAD participants who relapse are not threatened with jail time and expulsion from the program.Drug addiction has become one of the many social problems that we've relegated to the criminal justice system. But as with homelessness and mental illness, handcuffs and jail cells haven't made things better and have cost much more than the treatment and services that can. LEAD’s goal is to improve public safety and public order, and to reduce the criminal behavior of people who participate in the program. The program will be thoroughly evaluated to determine whether it has been successful or not. Lead is different because, the diversion in LEAD is made at the pre-booking stage, in the hopes of bypassing the costs and time entailed in booking, charging, and requiring court appearances of an individual. Finally, LEAD provides participants with immediate case management services, and access to additional resources not available through existing public programs.

All through my childhood I have gone through struggles with drugs and prisons. I always thought that maybe after my dad got locked up he would change because he didn’t want to go back. Jail/Prison does not change the person, as soon as they get released and back into the “real” world, it’s the same cycle over and over again. People that are struggling with drinking or abusing drugs need help, they need someone they can talk to or someone they can relate to. Rehab or even the LEAD program are great examples of this.

Another example of a rehab program is in Canada, they give people who are struggling a place to live, but the difference with this one is the organization gives them clean needles. They have nurses there for drug overdoses. I truly don’t know how I feel about this, because I don’t think this necessarily helps the person get better, it’s just more “safe”. Some people may say that they do it because they care about their people and it’s a way to keep the people struggling alive. My way of thinking is that if people who use drugs go to jail over and over again for the same offences, then why would you send them back to the same place? It’s clearly not helping, being in a place surrounded by people who truly care about your well-being and want you to physically and emotionally get better, will in fact make you better.