Watchhttp://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Drug-rehab-called-key-to-avoid-3rd-strike-3906024.php
Participant, Winfred Saddler shares a lighter moment with his councelor, during the weekly meeting of the ARC program, Addiction Recovery Counseling at San Quentin State Prison, on Friday August 31, 2012, in San Quentin, Calif. A new state report shows that prison inmates convicted of a third strike are no more psychologically dangerous than other criminals, but do have more substance abuse issues.
Follow
Befriend (5)
31 threads
2,246 comments
Premium
Other studies have shown rehab expensive and no better than letting people come to their senses on their own. This shilling reflects the agenda of both major parties, to make more people spend more money, which is a metaphor for labor, i.e. gaining control of more people's labor by making them pay more money to the purveyors of government-mandated programs. The Republicans "get tough" selling a counterproductive drug war because it enriches the prison-industrial complex, the Democrats answer with equally expensive rehab programs. Both are trying to get you to waste as much $ as possible, because that is how they make $ for their corporate sponsors.
Follow
Befriend
6 threads
647 comments
Pleasanton, CA
Just because there is a "problem" does not mean that there is a "solution".
Drug/alcohol use/dependency are probably directly or peripherally involved in 85 percent of incarcerations or recidivism.
Treatment and recovery are wonderful things for the 1 to 5 percent who manage to get and stay sober by wanting it more than anything else in their lives.
1 to 5 percent are long odds for making policy determinations, and recovery resources are already broadly available for those in prison who really want them.
The "three strikes" law cast a vast net with unpredictable and bizarre results, and should be altered or changed for that reason alone.
Follow
Befriend (5)
31 threads
2,246 comments
Premium
Ceffer says
Exactly, but there are always lobbyists ready to pay politicians of both major parties to advertise a lucrative "solution" that will only perpetuate or compound the problem. The endless drug war is a prime example, brought to you by both halves of the Repubocrats.
Ceffer says
And those people would be equally likely to recover without the treatment. The key is wanting it. No one can save people from themselves.
Follow
Befriend
6 threads
647 comments
Pleasanton, CA
It depends on what they define as treatment. Most recovery resources are low cost or free for the motivated i.e. twelve step programs.
Some facility oriented treatment for acute withdrawal might be indicated, but over 95 percent of addicts/alcoholics are simply going to die in various sundry destructive and manipulative ways, taking casualties as they go down the chute. Prison probably prolongs the longevity of addicts by restricting the free use of substances that would otherwise kill them faster. It gives many of them shelter, food, a modicum of health care, and at least partial drug/alcohol restriction, a kind of "punctuated" but artificial abstinence.
Having highly paid professionals preaching to a room full of jonesing, contemptuous thugs who are trying to get out of their cells for a while and calling it "treatment" does not fit the definition, that is just a form of job welfare for the treatment professional. Treatment professionals know that this is spurious, but a job is a job, same as in the educational system.
Follow
Befriend (25)
413 threads
6,981 comments
Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
Prisoners who take rehab to avoid more prison is an awesome idea... but will it work?
Rehab often takes mulitiple failures before the subject finally "gets it." And the chance for relapse is incredible. It's not that rehabilitation doesn't work - but the three-strike law is stupid to begin with.
Violent offenders belong in jail, 3 strikes, yer out! But the cost of rehab for non-violent offenders over & over is crazy. These offenders should have to pay for it out of their own pocket, no funding from Medicare/Medicaid/insurance, etc. If they had to work really hard to get there, they might take it more seriously.
Follow
Befriend
6 threads
647 comments
Pleasanton, CA
elliemae says
No.
Follow
Befriend (5)
31 threads
2,246 comments
Premium
Ceffer says
True, and it illustrates a broader truth about medical care. In many instances, the best available "treatment" costs little or nothing, and paying more confers little or no benefit to anyone other than the revenue recipient.
In general, advertising and lobbying are intended specifically to make people pay more for something that is worth less. If you want to know which restaurants to avoid, switch on the TV and see which ones need to pay for advertising. If you want to know which industries are trying to overcharge you, check how much they need to spend on lobbying. Anyone can point to problems and promise solutions, but that doesn't mean they'll make you better off; to the contrary, many of them will only make you poorer.
Follow
Befriend
6 threads
647 comments
Pleasanton, CA
LIberals are good at creating "false economies" i.e. programs that "save" money by spending money, usually by putting it in the hands of a "benevolent" government program or agency.
"Every dollar spent on treatment programs saves forty dollars in social costs caused by drug abuse."
Of course, theses are assertion fallacies backed up by apocryphal and irrelevant data mining and appeals to emotional idealism.
As you say, a program that spends 40,000 dollars on 25 addicts has basically spent a million dollars on the single one who "recovers" who probably would have done so anyway because they really wanted to.
Follow
Befriend (25)
413 threads
6,981 comments
Saint George, UT
elliemae's website
Ceffer says
It also employs counselors, psych techs, and other staff such as janetorial & meal prep staff.
Rehab is job creators! whoppee!!!