Recovery-Oriented Justice Initiatives & the Pivotal Role of the Prosecutor.

• Author: Best, David

The crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic is not solely concentrated in the public health sphere. The isolation and economic devastation of COVID are further fueling an already existing addiction crisis and simultaneously creating adverse conditions across the justice system as well. (NCSL, 2020). As lives lost to addiction continue to rise, there is a growing awareness that we must improve our responses across both public health and criminal justice domains.

Despite the current dire situation, there are reasons for optimism and some silver linings have emerged. Over the past several years, there have been explosive advances in the science surrounding addiction and recovery. The 2016 groundbreaking report on "Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General's Report on Alcohol, Drugs and Health" (USDHHS, 2016) highlighted the most recent science and best practices across the entire spectrum, from prevention through to recovery support.

While the chronic nature of addiction can be analogized to other chronic conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, this should not be taken as grounds for pessimism. In fact, research reveals that like other chronic conditions, addiction is treatable and the earlier the intervention, the better the prognosis with an estimated 57% of those with a lifetime drug and alcohol dependence achieving stable recovery (Sheedy and Whitter, 2009). This has generated a huge population as living evidence of recovery.

In a representative population sample of 39,809 adults from across the US, Kelly et al (2017) reported that 9.1% of respondents reported that they had resolved an alcohol or other drug problem, with 46.1% having done so without any engagement with specialist help or treatment. Of the 53.9% who had sought help, only around half (27.6%) had used professionally supported services, with the most common forms of help used being mutual aid groups (such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous) and peer-based recovery support services.

Given the correlation between substance use and offending, the emergence of recovery-oriented policies and practices have the potential to deliver enormous benefits across the entire justice system. Research confirms the criminal justice system can serve as the platform to initiate behavior change, to support treatment retention, to improve rates of remission, and to decrease relapse and re-arrest over the long-term (Kelly, Finney and Moos, 2005). Through incorporation of such strategies, the leverage of the justice system can be used not only to hold offenders accountable, but to provide the...