Substance Abuse Costly to WV's Criminal Justice System

More than $330 million of WV’s criminal justice system budget was consumed to address alcohol and drug involved offenses in 2008, according to a new report released this month by the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being.

“The Financial Burden of Substance Abuse in West Virginia: The Criminal Justice System” -- available at www.PrevNET.org -- provides trends in the estimate of the cost of drug and alcohol use in the criminal justice system from 2005 to 2008. The West Virginia criminal justice system includes the Regional Jail Authority, Division of Corrections, Parole Board, Prosecuting Attorneys Institute, Public Defender Program, Law Enforcement, the Judicial System, and Division of Juvenile Services.

“The cost of drug and alcohol use is increasing astronomically in the different agencies, and the state of WV bears the burden of most of the cost,” said Mike Lacy, Chair of the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being and Director of Probation Services for the WV Supreme Court of Appeals.

“Direct and indirect drug and alcohol crimes make up a large proportion of what the criminal justice system deals with in WV. For example, nearly 65% of inmates at the regional jail authority facilities are there for direct and indirect drug - and alcohol-related crimes in 2008, costing the state over $50 million, a cost that has increased by nearly 20% since 2005,” said Lacy.

“The Financial Burden of Substance Abuse in West Virginia: The Criminal Justice System” is the first set in a series of reports that will examine the cost of drug and alcohol use in the criminal justice, health care, education, child welfare, and workforce systems in WV. A comprehensive report, incorporating estimates from all these different sectors of the government, will be produced at the end of the project.

The reports are part of a larger Family Funding Study project which is funded with federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Block Grant money administered by the WV Div. of Criminal Justice (DCJS).

This report was produced by the WV Partnership to Promote Community Well-Being’s staff at the WV Prevention Resource Center. The WVPRC is an affiliate of Marshall University and funded primarily through two federal grants: the Substance Abuse Prevention & Treatment Block Grant administered through the WV DHHR's Bureau for Behavioral Health and Health Facilities and a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant administered through the WV Governor's Office via its Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Additional information about the WV Partnership, the WVPRC, and the Funding Study project is available at www.PrevNET.org.