Treating Drug Abuse and Addiction in the Criminal Justice System: Improving Public Health and Safety

Despite increasing evidence that addiction is a treatable disease of the brain, most individuals do not receive treatment. Involvement in the criminal justice system often results from illegal drug-seeking behavior and participation in illegal activities that reflect, in part, disrupted behavior ens...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association Vol. 301; no. 2; pp. 183 - 190
Main Authors Chandler, Redonna K, Fletcher, Bennett W, Volkow, Nora D
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Chicago, IL American Medical Association 14.01.2009
Subjects
Addictive behaviors
Adult and adolescent clinical studies
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - physiology
Crime
Criminal justice
Criminology
Drug abuse
Drug addiction
General aspects
Health Services Accessibility
Humans
Medical sciences
Mental Health Services
Miscellaneous
Neurosciences
Prisons - statistics & numerical data
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychopathology. Psychiatry
Public Health
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Public safety
Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology
Substance-Related Disorders - therapy
United States - epidemiology
United States
United States > US
Justice
Medicine
Drug addiction
Improvement
Treatment
Addiction
Toxicity
Criminality
Substance abuse
Safety
Public health
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Summary:Despite increasing evidence that addiction is a treatable disease of the brain, most individuals do not receive treatment. Involvement in the criminal justice system often results from illegal drug-seeking behavior and participation in illegal activities that reflect, in part, disrupted behavior ensuing from brain changes triggered by repeated drug use. Treating drug-involved offenders provides a unique opportunity to decrease substance abuse and reduce associated criminal behavior. Emerging neuroscience has the potential to transform traditional sanction-oriented public safety approaches by providing new therapeutic strategies against addiction that could be used in the criminal justice system. We summarize relevant neuroscientific findings and evidence-based principles of addiction treatment that, if implemented in the criminal justice system, could help improve public heath and reduce criminal behavior.
ISSN:0098-7484
1538-3598
DOI:10.1001/jama.2008.976