What are the main reasons for using a drug court instead of simply sending users to jail?
Jail and prison are costly punishments. Taxpayers spend upwards of $120 per day to incarcerate offenders. Punishing non-violent offenders in other ways helps to reduce taxpayers’ spending for prison beds, and ensures that there is space in existing prisons for violent offenders. Because incarceration alone has been shown to have little effect on drug addicts, other forms of punishment may be more beneficial. Without drug treatment, more than 70 percent of drug addicts will commit new crimes. Addicts who complete a drug court program are much less likely to commit new crimes. In fact, in most drug courts, the recidivism rate for drug court graduates is less than 10 percent.
