One of the most important innovations Mississippi has implemented in its criminal justice system over the past two decades is looking for ways to turn lawbreakers around without putting them behind bars.
At the forefront of that movement has been the drug court system, which started out as an experiment in a few felony courts about 20 years ago and has spread to most parts of the state. Not only is the idea being used for felonies, but some municipalities, including Greenwood, have implemented drug courts to deal with misdemeanor offenders, too.
The premise behind drug courts is that addiction, not a propensity toward crime, that drives some people to break the law. Thus, if you can help them beat their addiction, you can turn them into law-abiding citizens, and at a cost that’s a whole lot less than locking them up.
This week, Michael Randolph, the chief justice of the state Supreme Court, told a legislative panel how well the drug courts have been working and how hopeful he is that other fledgling “intervention courts” — one geared toward veterans, another toward those who suffer from mental illness — will be just as effective.
“This is the most efficient operation in state government, bar none,” Randolph said. “There’s not one that produces like the intervention court does.”
Intervention courts are popular across the political spectrum, even if for different reasons. Those on the left like them because they focus on treatment rather than punishment. Those on the right like them because they save the taxpayers money — and lots of it.
According to Randle, it costs the state about $18,500 a year to incarcerate an individual, compared to $1,200 to $1,500 for an intervention court program. It is estimated that since the first drug courts were created, Mississippi has saved more than $1 billion because of them.
Those are the quantifiable savings. Not as easy to measure, but definitely there are the reduced social welfare costs when those who have committed crimes can be treated in the free world, hold down jobs, pay taxes and provide for their families. In fact, one of the conditions of being in drug court is for the individual to be employed.
Not everyone completes drug court. Some don’t follow the rules and slip back into their substance-abuse pattern. They wind up behind bars after all.
But those who complete the roughly four-year program have a much higher chance of remaining crime-free. According to Randolph, drug court graduates have a recidivism rate of just 3% — about one-12th the rate of inmates who come out of the state penitentiary.
The intervention-court approach works because it focuses on rehabilitation rather than punishment. It understands that addiction and mental illness are more likely to get worse behind bars, not better.
Prisons are necessary for criminals who are incorrigible or dangerous. But for those nonviolent offenders who can be rehabilitated, it is a lot cheaper — not to mention more humane — to try to help them beat or treat the illness that led to their crimes.
