A new report detailing the high costs of incarceration supports the need for a shift in focus from prisons to preventative measures such as substance abuse, educational and job programs, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Newell Normand said.

Louisiana jails 1,138 people per 100,000 people, giving it not only the highest incarceration rate in the country but in the world, according to the Pew Charitable Trusts report. By comparison the national average of the United States is 750 and Russia 628.

To support so many inmates, Louisiana spends 7 percent of its general fund, $38.6 million out of $552 million, on the state corrections system.

Despite the massive expenditure, Louisiana's prison population grew by 706 inmates in 2007.

"The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over again in hopes of achieving a different result," Normand said. "And that's what we've been doing. We just keep locking them up, but we're not doing anything to rehabilitate them so they won't become repeat offenders. We have to find alternatives to incarceration."

Normand pointed to the Jefferson Parish Drug Treatment Court as a model of success.

Substance abuse is widely seen as the motivating factor behind most crimes. If you take away people's addictions, they will not be compelled to steal or rob to feed their habits, Normand said.

Drug court is a special court designed to handle the cases of less serious, non-violent crimes committed by drug-using offenders. It concentrates heavily on the offenders, using intense treatment combined with frequent court appearances to ensure the offender remains drug-free and out of legal trouble. If participants in drug court fail to follow the program, they risk imprisonment.

The success rate for people who voluntarily admit themselves to drug rehabilitation is 4 percent compared with 50 percent in drug court, Normand said.

The average cost to lock up a drug offender is $17,144 a year for adults and $38,200 a year for juveniles, according to the Drug Court.

The average annual cost of each drug court offender is $4,500 for adults and $5,300 a year for juveniles -- savings of between 70 percent and 86 percent.

The problem with drug court, however, is that it can only accommodate up to 200 people while the need is at least 2,000, Normand said.

The JPSO arrests an average of 3,000 people annually and 50 percent are first-time nonviolent drug offenders, according to the sheriff's office.

Since there is limited room in drug court, that means 1,300 people in need of substance abuse help will either go to jail or be put on probation.

"If they're nonviolent offenders, they'll go to jail for a short time and when they get out, because we haven't dealt with the behavioral disorder, they'll go right back to using drugs," Normand said. "And we have first-time possession cases that get probation but there is no after care to deal with their addiction so we know they will re-offend."

Department of Corrections Secretary James LeBlanc reinforced Normand's desire to focus more on preventative measures and believes those changes will lower the recidivism rate from 48 percent to 35 percent.

"We have to get a handle on substance abuse or they'll go back to the street corners," LeBlanc said. "We need to help our communities understand that 95 percent of the people in prison will eventually be coming home. With these programs, they can be sober with job skills. Without them, they could be sicker and more violent.

"Who do you want coming back?"