Spend Funds on Family Residential Treatment Centers
Family Residential Treatment Centers are proven 15 times more effective at reducing crime than prison and is one third the cost.
It costs Americans $64,000 per year to house a non-violent drug offender in jail, $42,000 in prison. Substance abuse is implicated in 80% of their crimes and 50-70% of them read below the sixth grade level. There is little treatment or education provided in prison, leading to a staggering 78.5% recidivism rate. It costs us $20-55,000 to place a child in foster care for one year and over 50% of them become incarcerated or addicted at some point. It would only cost us $26,000 to place a parent and two children in a family residential treatment program where they receive education, counseling, job and parenting skills. There are only a handful of these programs in America. There are thousands of jails and prisons. Please divert funds from imprisoning non-violent drug-offenders into building these treatment centers. Thank you.
