Marijuana Policy Project

Wisconsin pays $83 million a year to house 2,900 nonviolent prisoners.

That's an average annual cost of $28,622 per prisoner.

Now, let's say we could save up to $43 million a year—more than half our cost in imprisoning nonviolent offenders—by providing alternative treatment programs for those who suffer from drug and alcohol addictions rather than fits of rage.

In that light, such treatment programs are more than a second chance for low-level criminals—they are a sound investment for taxpayers.

That is the conclusion of a year-long study by two criminal justice policy experts who interviewed Wisconsin judges, corrections officials, prosecutors and others on the state's drug problem, according to a report Tuesday in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

The study, commissioned by sentencing reform advocates at the Drug Policy Alliance, urges state lawmakers to make a major, long-term financial commitment to finding alternatives to incarceration.

The report acknowledges that most decision-makers are willing to explore such programs until it comes time to lay money on the table. State legislators so far have opted to keep nonviolent offenders locked up for nearly $29,000 a year rather than pay an average of $6,100 to put them through community-based treatment programs.

Wood County has firsthand experience with this phenomenon.

A task force of local criminal justice officials started an Adult Drug Court in late 2004 as an alternative to jail for drug offenders. Participants are required to stay clean and sober, show up for drug testing and court appearances and undergo counseling. In exchange, they are kept out of jail and given a chance to contribute to society.

But when the county had to make budget cuts last year, one of the line items removed was the funding for the drug court. The court was saved for 2006 only after organizers cut the program costs in half, to $15,000, and an anonymous donor stepped forward through the Community Foundation of South Wood County.

In November, the Adult Drug Court celebrated its first two graduations. That quite probably equates to two people spared incarceration, two families prevented from being torn apart and taxpayers saved nearly $60,000 in annual prison costs.

One could argue that Wood County's mix of private and public funding, and its sort of make-shift, low-budget drug court, is all the taxpayers can afford.

Perhaps that is true, considering the millions we're already forced to spend to place nonviolent offenders in jail and prison, where they are as likely to spiral into a life of more serious crime and more expense to the public than to undergo rehabilitation.

The Wood County Adult Drug Court and the study for the Drug Policy Alliance provide us with credible evidence that the thing we really cannot afford is to ignore alternatives to prison.

Wisconsin's lawmakers ought to use Wood County's drug court as a shining example for a statewide program, but one with an adequate annual investment to ensure its success and continuation.