Tuesday, March 18, 2003

Innovative Drug Treatment Alternative To Prison Program Reduces Crime, Prison Costs
Press release from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) - "Drug-addicted, non-violent felony offenders with five prior drug arrests and an average of four years behind bars achieved significantly lower recidivism rates and higher employment rates through a drug treatment program than comparable offenders who were sent to prison, according to findings published in the White Paper, Crossing the Bridge: An Evaluation of the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison (DTAP) Program, released today by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University. These results were achieved at about half the cost of incarceration, the CASA evaluation found. The five-year evaluation was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse." See also the full report, available in Adobe Acrobat format.