One of my issues with the “treatment first” push is that it’s not so much treatment before incarceration. It’s treatment/punishment and the arrestees know that they are probably not going to get locked up, so all this is an inconvenience.
So what they do(or did, even 20 years ago) was you would offer them a plea deal and opt for treatment/jail. The crimes could be simple possession, but mostly involved theft. Where my issue came in is that you would have an arrest for breaking into 20 cars that were found ransacked.
Clearly, based upon the scabs, whacked out behavior(watching them detox or withdrawal before your eyes), and their own admission-you would talk to the prosecutor and tell them you were ok with a treatment program if the victims were (most were once they got their stuff back), however, they would sign themselves in and then put a few hours later and the courts would do nothing.
They continue to accumulate arrests/charges, and given the same deal with the same result. Leave after a few hours and the crimes they plead to didn’t mean shit because there is no punishment when they don’t follow through. And keep in mind, beds in rehabs are in very short supply and the treatment is expensive.
These fucks take a bed from someone else, leave after a few hours, and they get to do it free of charge on our taxes, of course. And, they learn nothing because they keep breaking into cars and they keep seeing nothing happen, so they keep doing it and the court would never issue a warrant and put them in jail as was in the agreement. “If you don’t complete the program, your six week jail sentence will be reinstated.” But they wouldn’t do it, or most prosecutors wouldn’t.
So, what I would like to see is treatment/incarceration-but it has to have teeth! Lockdown facility for the same or similar amount of time they would be in jail. Probably less to make treatment more palatable. No more leaving rehab and not going to jail. No more repeated arrests with no consequences. And after they complete the rehab, they have to continue meetings, drug testing, therapy, etc. ideally, job training would be huge, but not really feasible with a six week stay.
I fucking hated chickenshit crimes like walking up and down a street checking car door handles so you can steal change. What a pathetic and sad existence. They are pretty damn sure they won’t end up in jail, so they keep doing it and rack up dozens of arrests.
I remember a few times where they expected the same deal and the magistrate(we had one good one, the rest too soft) refused because of how many times it had failed and the suspects began to scream and wail in the courtroom when they realized they would have to detox and withdrawal for 8 weeks. The first time, the guy was not only an addict/thief, but a genuine asshole who used to run his mouth and demand you take off the cuffs if you wanted your ass beat(he was 125 lbs-most of it scabs) It was quite satisfying to see him not get his way and the look in his eyes when expected a lecture and instead, he got some jail time.
And this is my medium sized city. In somewhere like Portland, with lots of crimes and criminals doing the exact same shit-I wouldn’t expect to see much effort or follow-through by the courts.
I often say that we can’t arrest our way out of the drug epidemic. If it was only drug use, that would be one thing-but the addicts steal anything not nailed down to feed their addiction. When they are caught and the victims see nothing happen or see the same guy skulking around the neighborhood checking doors, it pisses the public off and makes the whole system look weak. It was always so frustrating to look at the victims sheepishly and apologetically because, yet again, no punishment.
But just like we can’t arrest this problem away, having no consequences for crimes mostly caused by addiction, and not requiring the rehab, is not working either. It should be “ok, this is your fourth arrest for petit larceny in the last six weeks-I am sentencing you to six months jail time or 4 months in a lockdown treatment facility. If you fail to complete or participate in the program, you go straight to jail for whatever sentence you have left.”
And rehab/jail is a sweet deal for them. They get to smoke cigarettes whereas in jail, they couldn’t. The accommodations and food are much better. Much less risk of being beaten up or victimized. Plus, you’re actually doing some kind of treatment for the issue that leads you to commit so many crimes.
With habitual offenders that reoffend over and over again, jail/treatment-neither will work. The best thing about them being locked away somewhere is that they can’t continue to commit crime and fuck up everyone else’s quality of life when they come out to a ransacked car with a broken window if it was locked. People have said in San Fran, they leave their doors unlocked with nothing inside the car worth taking because if they lock up, their window just gets smashed. I have also seen quite a few soft-top jeeps/convertibles have the cover sliced open to steal $2 change. Ideally, they get caught by the property owner and get their ass beat pretty good so there’s at least some punishment or at least, a learning experience.
Like I said, I prefer a lock-down facility where they are forced to participate in treatment. Even if they’re gaming the system, they are still off the streets unable to victimize others. Maybe some day, the program will work for them, but it’s rare because it’s forced rather than sought out treatment indicating they want to change.
The worst thing to do is absolutely nothing allowing tweakers to continue to break the laws with no repercussions at all. That teaches them nothing, frustrates the officers and victims, and has almost a zero % chance of fixing the issues. Plus, they are free to continue to victimize people/stores. The criminals know that no one is going to intervene. There’s no punishment even if caught and no incentive to get clea. I get so sick of seeing the druggies raid the CVS with garbage bags stealing whatever they want while people are just forced to watch helplessly. I love the videos where they think they are untouchable and then someone gets pissed off and thumps them. The look of confusion is so satisfying and they’re like “you can’t touch me-that’s a crime!!”
