REVOLVING DOOR? –
April 28, 2026 – The United States is a global leader in mass incarceration. It holds nearly 2 million Americans in prisons and jails, and it costs a whopping $445 billion annually to do so. About 65 percent of people in American prisons have an active substance use disorder (SUD).
For inmates with an SUD, incarceration usually means immediate, forced abstinence. This might sound like a good thing; isn’t the best way to help an addict to stop their access to the drugs to which they are addicted?
The answer, it turns out, can get complicated. Forced abstinence means forced withdrawal symptoms. Depending on the specific SUD, symptoms can include anxiety, irritability, tremors, lethargy, fatigue, or digestive complications. Moreover, neuroscience research on addicted brains makes clear that addicted brains cannot just return to normal after an abrupt cut-off from drugs. Restoration of brain function takes time. Brains need help as they recover from drug addiction, and inmates have a legal right to access appropriate treatment.
