Value To The You - The Taxpayer
Since its beginning, over 315 people have completed the Thurston County Drug Court Program. The rate of recidivism (the number of graduates who have been reconvicted) is remarkably low, approximately 12%.
In contrast, in Thurston County where approximately three-fourths of all arrests are drug or alcohol related, when offenders are jailed or incarcerated, the recidivism rate (the number of released offenders who are reconvicted of another crime) is 72%! That means that 3 out of 4 people leave the system and are later arrested again.
Unlike the Drug Court alternative, the current system is alarmingly ineffective in changing the behavior of those who are convicted. The current reality for offenders who enter our traditional criminal justice system is that they are not deterred from further criminal activity. Underlying drug and alcohol problems are not addressed.
Offender Costs Per Day
When we compare what it costs taxpayers per day for offenders, the numbers are equally dramatic:
For a Drug Court participant we pay approximately $16.00 a day.
To house an individual in the Thurston County Jail we pay about $72.83 a day.
And, for incarceration in a Washington State Prison we pay nearly $74.44 a day.
For the cost of 80 days in jail or 78 days in prison, Drug Court can provide services to one participant for an entire year.
Clearly, Drug Court can save taxpayers money. Not only that, remember that Drug Court graduates are less likely to re-offend.
And . . .most importantly, Drug Court’s
success rate reclaims lives – something traditional
sentencing rarely achieves.
Drug Court Costs Compared to Incarceration
The Washington State Prison System currently houses over 16,000 people, with an additional 93,000 supervised by the Department of Corrections in the Community. Today, the annual cost per inmate in a State Prison Facility is $27,170.
The Thurston County Jail houses a daily average of 400 people, at an annual cost per inmate of $26,583.
The Thurston County Drug Court Program currently provides services for 72 people, at $5,840 per participant for one year.
Drug Court Program Treatment Services are more effective and cost efficient than incarceration.
It is anticipated that all these costs will only increase
in the future.