CRIMINAL AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

DRUG TREATMENT AND AVAILABILITY IN PRISONS

WHEREAS, The United States Conference of Mayors, after holding extensive meetings across the country including The U.S. Conference of Mayors National Forum on Drug Control in 1997, has compiled "A National Action Plan to Control Drugs"; and

WHEREAS, the Action Plan states that, "for young people especially, incarceration should focus on rehabilitation, and the availability of drug treatment is essential to this; and

WHEREAS, a recent report issued by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), entitled "Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America’s Prison Population," found that drug and alcohol abuse and addiction are implicated in the crimes and incarceration of 80 percent -- some 1.4 million -- of the 1.7 million men and women behind bars in America; and

WHEREAS, among these 1.4 million inmates are parents of 2.4 million children, many of them minors; and

WHEREAS, from 1993 to 1996, the number of inmates needing substance abuse treatment climbed from 688,000 to 840,000, while the number of inmates in treatment hovered around 150,000 -- with much of the treatment they are receiving being inadequate according to the CASA report; and

WHEREAS, the CASA report estimates that for an additional $6,500 a year, an inmate could be given intensive treatment, education, and job training, which upon release would provide a return on investment of $68,800 in reduced criminal activity, savings on the cost of arrest, prosecution, incarceration and health care, and benefit to the economy; and

WHEREAS, the availability of illegal narcotics in prisons across the nation is a growing problem which hinders efforts to provide treatment,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the federal government, the U.S. Department of Justice, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy develop a strategy to reduce the availability of drugs in federal and federally funded prisons and jails, and ensure that adequate treatment exists for prisoners prior to their release back into society; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the nation’s governors, who control state prison systems and receive federal funding in support of prison construction, implement tougher controls to keep drugs out of prisons and increase the availability of treatment to meet demand, so that every prisoner, upon release, has received adequate treatment and has been tested to be drug-free.