A southern Kentucky judge says the cost of incarceration is changing the way Kentucky deals with drug offenders. The average cost of incarcerating someone in Kentucky is about $27,000 a year.
Warren Circuit Court Judge Steve Wilson says he’s seen a shift in how Kentucky’s legislators view incarceration for drug crimes. He says legislators are increasingly talking to him and other judges about alternatives to jail. He says the cost of keeping people behind bars has a lot to do with that shifting mindset.
“The extremely high cost of incarceration versus the cost of treatment has always been argued to me much more advantageous for treatment than incarceration," Wilson said. "Because at the end of incarceration without treatment we still have the same problem.”
Based on his interactions with addicts in his courtroom, Wilson says the pull of addiction far outweighs the fear of being punished in the legal system. He says warehousing people in jail without dealing with the substance abuse ignores the root of the problem, and that more needs to be done to increase treatment options for addicts in the state.
