IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/hlthec/v21y2012i6p633-652.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Benefits and costs of substance abuse treatment programs for state prison inmates: results from a lifetime simulation model

Author

Listed:
  • Gary A. Zarkin
  • Alexander J. Cowell
  • Katherine A. Hicks
  • Michael J. Mills
  • Steven Belenko
  • Laura J. Dunlap
  • Kimberly A. Houser
  • Vince Keyes

Abstract

Reflecting drug use patterns and criminal justice policies throughout the 1990s and 2000s, prisons hold a disproportionate number of society's drug abusers. Approximately 50% of state prisoners meet the criteria for a diagnosis of drug abuse or dependence, but only 10% receive medically based drug treatment. Because of the link between substance abuse and crime, treating substance abusing and dependent state prisoners while incarcerated has the potential to yield substantial economic benefits. In this paper, we simulate the lifetime costs and benefits of improving prison‐based substance abuse treatment and post‐release aftercare for a cohort of state prisoners. Our model captures the dynamics of substance abuse as a chronic disease; estimates the benefits of substance abuse treatment over individuals' lifetimes; and tracks the costs of crime and criminal justice costs related to policing, adjudication, and incarceration. We estimate net societal benefits and cost savings to the criminal justice system of the current treatment system and five policy scenarios. We find that four of the five policy scenarios provide positive net societal benefits and cost savings to the criminal justice system relative to the current treatment system. Our study demonstrates the societal gains to improving the drug treatment system for state prisoners. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Suggested Citation

  • Gary A. Zarkin & Alexander J. Cowell & Katherine A. Hicks & Michael J. Mills & Steven Belenko & Laura J. Dunlap & Kimberly A. Houser & Vince Keyes, 2012. "Benefits and costs of substance abuse treatment programs for state prison inmates: results from a lifetime simulation model," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(6), pages 633-652, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:21:y:2012:i:6:p:633-652
    DOI: 10.1002/hec.1735
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.1735
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/hec.1735?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary A. Zarkin & Laura J. Dunlap & Katherine A. Hicks & Daniel Mamo, 2005. "Benefits and costs of methadone treatment: results from a lifetime simulation model," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 14(11), pages 1133-1150, November.
    2. Auerhahn, Kathleen, 2008. "Dynamic systems simulation analysis: A planning tool for the new century," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 293-300, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Murphy, David M.A., 2023. "Sobriety, social capital, and village network structures," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    2. Kevin N. Griffith & Lawrence M. Scheier, 2013. "Did We Get Our Money’s Worth? Bridging Economic and Behavioral Measures of Program Success in Adolescent Drug Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-28, November.
    3. Cowell, Alexander J. & Hinde, Jesse M. & Broner, Nahama & Aldridge, Arnie P., 2013. "The impact on taxpayer costs of a jail diversion program for people with serious mental illness," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 31-37.
    4. Silbernagl, Marisa & Slamanig, Rudolf & Fischer, Gabriele & Brandt, Laura, 2018. "Hepatitis C infection and psychiatric burden in two imprisoned cohorts: Young offenders and opioid-maintained prisoners," Health Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(12), pages 1392-1402.
    5. Alison Ritter & Nagesh Shukla & Marian Shanahan & Phuong Van Hoang & Vu Lam Cao & Pascal Perez & Michael Farrell, 2016. "Building a Microsimulation Model of Heroin Use Careers in Australia," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 9(3), pages 140-176.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emanuel Krebs & Jeong E. Min & Elizabeth Evans & Libo Li & Lei Liu & David Huang & Darren Urada & Thomas Kerr & Yih-Ing Hser & Bohdan Nosyk, 2017. "Estimating State Transitions for Opioid Use Disorders," Medical Decision Making, , vol. 37(5), pages 483-497, July.
    2. Marta Soares & Luísa Canto e Castro, 2012. "Continuous Time Simulation and Discretized Models for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 30(12), pages 1101-1117, December.
    3. Marta O. Soares & Luísa Canto e Castro, 2012. "Continuous Time Simulation and Discretized Models for Cost-Effectiveness Analysis," PharmacoEconomics, Springer, vol. 30(12), pages 1101-1117, December.
    4. Christine Godfrey, 2006. "Evidence-Based Illicit Drug Policy: The Potential Contribution of Economic Evaluation Techniques," De Economist, Springer, vol. 154(4), pages 563-580, December.
    5. Alison Ritter & Nagesh Shukla & Marian Shanahan & Phuong Van Hoang & Vu Lam Cao & Pascal Perez & Michael Farrell, 2016. "Building a Microsimulation Model of Heroin Use Careers in Australia," International Journal of Microsimulation, International Microsimulation Association, vol. 9(3), pages 140-176.
    6. Kevin N. Griffith & Lawrence M. Scheier, 2013. "Did We Get Our Money’s Worth? Bridging Economic and Behavioral Measures of Program Success in Adolescent Drug Prevention," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-28, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:hlthec:v:21:y:2012:i:6:p:633-652. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/5749 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.