EIGHTY PERCENT OF CRIMES ARE DRUG-RELATED

NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Results of a survey released Thursday show that 80%
of all crimes and incarcerations in the US can be linked to drug and
alcohol use.

Joseph Califano, Jr., president of The National Center on Addiction and
Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University announced the results of the
survey, entitled "Behind Bars: Substance Abuse and America's Prison
Population" at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. He noted that
1.4 million of the current 1.7 million prison population have a history of
drug or alcohol abuse, committed crime under the influence, stole to get
money to buy drugs, or violated drug or alcohol laws.

In 1996, $30 billion was spent to incarcerate individuals with a history of
substance abuse. Califano said that if such individuals were identified at
the outset, assessed for treatment and training needs, and kept apart from
"criminal incorrigibles," then these inmates might receive "the hand they
need to become productive citizens and responsible parents.... The choice
is ours as well as theirs."

Califano remarked that if the current rate of incarceration continues, then
1 out of every 20 children born in 1997 will spend time in prison. This
would include 1 out of every 11 men and 1 out of every 4 black men. "The
case for change, revealed in the report, is urgent and overwhelming,"
Califano stated. "Reducing alcohol and drug abuse and addiction is the key
to the next major reduction in crime, and the prison population represents
an enormous missed opportunity."

The CASA survey, which took three years to complete, also showed:

- -- the US prison population tripled between 1980 and 1996, going from
500,000 to 1.7 million.

- -- if the current trend continues, by the year 2000, the US will spend more
than $100 million a day to incarcerate individuals with a history of
substance abuse.

- -- the number one "substance abuse crime" in the country is drunk driving,
which accounted for 1.4 million arrests in 1995.

- -- in the one-year period between 1995 and 1996, state corrections budgets
jumped 28%.

- -- 81% of individuals who sell drugs test positive at the time of arrest.

- -- inmates who are substance abusers are the most likely to be reincarcerated.

- -- the incidence of AIDS is 17 times higher among inmates compared with the
general population.

- -- alcohol is associated more often with violent crimes, including murder,
rape, assault and spouse abuse, than any other drug.

The report also found that 80% of the $38 billion spent in 1996 to build
and operate prisons in the US was spent to house substance-involved
criminals. The study authors estimate that in addition to usual
incarceration costs, it would take $6,500 per year to treat an inmate for
substance abuse and provide him/her with vocational training. But for every
inmate that returns successfully to society, such programs would save
$68,000 in reduced crime, prosecution, and incarceration costs and
potential earnings in the first year after release. Even if only 10% of
inmates who are substance abusers were treated, the economic benefit in the
first year after release would be $8.6 billion, say the CASA researchers.

"Failure to use the criminal justice system to get non-violent drug- and
alcohol-abusing offenders into treatment and training is irrational public
policy and a profligate use of public funds," said Califano in a statement.
"...Releasing drug-addicted inmates without treatment helps maintain the
market for illegal drugs and (supports) drug dealers."