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Post by Chips on Jun 7, 2008 17:28:01 GMT 9.5
Alternatives to jail
Gino Vumbaca ("Children pay the price of our addiction to prisons", June 5) makes the excellent point that diverting offenders into drug and alcohol treatment programs is more effective in reducing crime than locking people up. In the case of heroin-using offenders - about half of all inmates - we have an effective, but underused, treatment for reducing imprisonment; methadone maintenance treatment. Research in NSW has shown that placing prisoners on it leads to a 70 per cent reduction in their reincarceration over the next few years.
Of the 3150 inmates in NSW who qualify for methadone treatment, only about 1700 receive it. The annual cost of treating one prisoner with methadone is about $3000, whereas the cost of detaining one person is about $70,000. The treatment is highly cost-effective. So why doesn't the Government increase the number of methadone places rather than building new prisons?
Dr Kate Dolan and Sarah Larney
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Post by Paul on Jun 8, 2008 13:10:35 GMT 9.5
Innocent people are put at risk when we let prisoners out of prison. Paul
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