"Almost 500 people in Nashville are committing crimes and costing taxpayers millions each year,..."

Well, those of us out here who are recovering addicts and who have also spent time earning educations in mental health and addiction treatment have been SCREAMING to all of you for decades that treatment was needed, not more jail beds, but no one wanted to listen until it started hitting taxpayers where it hurts - in the pocketbooks. Hundreds, if not thousands of studies have irrefutably proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that treatment is far more effective than incarceration, but money-wasting punitive actions always seem to win out in the end because the masses are misled into believing that drug abusers are criminals instead of suffering from an illness. There's no doubt that many drug abusers turn to crime to support their habits, but criminalizing those who haven't only seem to turn otherwise law abiding citizens into ostracized, unemployable drains on the system. Now frustrated and hopeless, these folks then turn to crime just to survive. It's a vicious, stupid circle and it's about time it has caught up with society enough that we're now considering doing something a little different - and a helluva lot smarter and more cost effective, too. Right now, if I have a client who tells me they need to go to rehab, on average it takes me weeks, sometimes months, to find them a bed. Often by the time I have something available for them, they're long off on a bender or have changed their mind. Ya gotta strike while the iron is hot and mark my words, it'll still be years before we begin spending more on rehab and treatment than on prisons.... 446 Repeat Offenders Cost Taxpayers Millions

Posted: May 23, 2008 08:14 PM

Featured Videos 446 Repeat Offenders Cost Taxpayers Millions

The Next Door

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Almost 500 people in Nashville are committing crimes and costing taxpayers millions each year, according to Metro police.

Police in Nashville said many of the people are homeless. The group, known as the 446, consists of men and women who have been arrested 99-500 times.

Most of the arrestees, police said, have mental health and addiction issues that never get treated.

Officers complain they are arrested on a daily basis for a variety of crimes including theft, trespassing and aggressive panhandling.

Shelia Ayala used to be one of those people.

She said every day she would "get up, go get money, get dope."

A former homeless prostitute now rehabilitated, Ayala said she was a part of failed system, a system that never gave her enough time in jail to receive treatment.

"It was nothing," she said, adding that incarceration was how she could "eat and sleep cool."

"I can't stress enough long-term care is the only way to fix the issue," said Sgt. Mikell Wiggs.

He said there aren't enough programs such as the Ayala is in right now. He said judges don't have the ability to put the 446 people in jail long enough to force them to into rehab.

After they're released, they return to the streets and commit the same crimes without receiving any treatment.

"These homeless people end up serving life sentence one day at a time every other day," said Sgt. Mikell Wiggs.

In addition to committing more crimes and harming more people, the repeat offenders also cost taxpayers more money.

"These costs add up," Wiggs said.

Wiggs estimates that offenders who each have been arrested 400 times or more cost taxpayers more than $1 million each.

The police want to see laws changed to make more programs and resources available to help the people and to give them the ability to keep them in jail long enough to get rehab.

There are a few programs such as the Next Door that help women who have been living on the streets or have addictions. The Next Door is a six-month residential transitional living program in downtown Nashville.

Police said more of these programs are needed to make a real difference.