The revolving door of court-treatment-prison has to stop.
By The Editorial Board Updated December 3, 2023, 4:00 a.m.
Someone commits a petty crime — theft, say — to feed an addiction and is put on probation. The judge orders them into treatment and says not to take drugs or drink alcohol.
But kicking a drug habit isn’t something that people with substance use disorder just do. It’s a medical intervention. Success isn’t guaranteed. Relapses happen.
The question for the state should be, is it really appropriate to imprison probationers if they experience a relapse but are otherwise obeying the terms of their probation and staying out of trouble? At the least, judges and the probation system need to embrace a flexible approach that recognizes the difference between a relapse that doesn’t truly endanger others — and one that does.