Criminal Justice Treatment Conference

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -What may be the central reason most people commit crimes is also one of the more difficult problems to solve. Nearly two-thirds of the nation’s prison population can trace their criminal activity to drug and/or alcohol addiction.

The Department of Correction will tackle that issue during the Criminal Justice Treatment Conference planned for June 12, 2008 in Nashville. “If we don’t deal with the offender’s addictions, we’re setting them up for failure,” said TDOC Assistant Commissioner Jim Cosby.

On Thursday, Dr. Stanton Samenow, a nationally recognized expert on criminal justice addiction, will join TDOC’s Director of Substance Abuse Services, Kenneth Osborne in a training conference for members of the criminal justice community. “The hope is that criminal justice providers become better educated on addiction and its effect on criminal activity,” said Osborne. “Sixty-seven percent of our inmates have had drug or alcohol problems, we have to be able to deal with those interrelated issues in order to reduce recidivism and protect the public.”

The media is invited to attend the conference.