INMATE DRUG REHAB KEY TO LESS CRIME

Federal drug officials published a report yesterday showing that
treatment for drug addiction in the criminal justice system is key to
reducing the prison population and keeping the nation's streets safer.

Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse,
said that many people in the system are there because of drugs -
either using, selling or committing crimes to get money to buy drugs.
Experts used to think that treatment worked only if a person was
ready to accept help, but new treatment studies on prisoners suggest
this captive population can benefit from treatment - even if they
don't want it.

"Treatment works," said Volkow, whose agency just published the first
guidelines on treating drug abuse in the criminal justice system.
"This is an extraordinary opportunity to help these people and to
decrease crime. They need access to treatment. This is a no-brainer."

Volkow said that about 70 percent of those in the criminal justice
system qualify for treatment for drug abuse, yet only 20 percent
actually receive it.

The drug institute has funded research to evaluate treatment programs
in jails and in the decade-old drug court system that has made it
possible for some people to avoid prison with treatment. "We've had a
real laboratory in which to understand the principles that relate to
success in treatment," Volkow said.

Dr. Herbert Kleber, director of the division on substance abuse at
Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute,
said the key to any successful program is to make sure treatment
continues once a person leaves the system. A growing number of
prisons have therapeutic communities, but having programs in place
when someone is ready to leave reduces the likelihood they will
commit another crime, Kleber said.

Studies have shown more than half of people arrested were under the
influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the crime. The
institute's report makes it clear drug addiction is a brain disease,
involving the areas that govern social judgments and impulsivity.

The report calls for proper assessment of drug problems, tailored
services, treatments that last long enough to produce behavioral
changes, ongoing care when re-entering the community, and medications.

Mental health officials in New York City are about to start a program
at Rikers Island for criminals who are addicted to opiates. Doctors
there will be prescribing buprenorphine, a long-acting medication for
opiate addiction, and prisoners can continue treatment once they
leave the system.

The institute study "hits all the right notes," said Justin Barry,
the drug court coordinator for the New York City Criminal Court
system. To change drug-abusing offenders' behavior, he said, "we need
to treat them as long as possible."