The best we can do?

“If you want to treat an illness that has no easy cure, first of all, treat them with hope.”—George Vaillant

credit: Franco Folini

This is so heartbreaking. Communities should distribute naloxone to inmates as they leave prison? Really?

I’ve grown so weary of the trite responses like, “You can’t recover if you are dead.”

Of course it’s true, but what are we doing to help them recover?

In the States it’s nearly nothing.

A report released today finds that Michigan’s Prisoner Re-entry Initiative is reducing recidivism among parolees but it almost ended just a few weeks ago. Keep in mind that this program costs $33 million in a corrections budget of $1.88 BILLION. (That’s less than 2%) Also, keep in mind that Michigan is one of 4 states that spends more on corrections than on higher education.

UPDATE: The more I think about this kind of stuff the angrier I get. It’s the equivalent of  finding someone collapsing with a heart attack in the middle of a street, helping them get to a sidewalk,  leaving them there and then congratulating yourself with statements like, “They’d never survive that heart attack if they got hit by a car!”