Review of Alternatives to Incarceration Efforts Worldwide

This year graduate students from John Jay College of Criminal Justice completed a semester-long research assignment in partnership with the Department of State’s Diplomacy Lab Project.  The project’s goal was to research the readiness of countries to expand alternatives to incarceration (ATIs) for persons with substance use disorders (SUDs).  Students gathered data for 193 UN Member States (plus Palestine, Kosovo and Taiwan) across several factors including legal code, national drug control strategy, public opinion, treatment capacity, and the specific types of ATIs in operation.  Overall, the findings indicated around half of the countries have laws that allow for ATIs for substance use disorders, while less than one-third have national drug control strategies that allow for the development of these alternatives.  The monumental scope of this project - the first of its kind - gives detailed information regarding the status of ATIs for SUDs in each country.  I'm pleased to share their final report.