Attorneys Helping Clients with Treatment
If you are an attorney and your client seriously needs help with their issues with addiction, now is the best time to help them get the treatment they need. When people are suffering from addiction, they act out in ways that they normally wouldn’t. One of the biggest red flags of drug or alcohol addiction is trouble with the law. Attorneys can be the difference of whether or not their client gets treatment.
In fact, Newsweek estimated that of the 2.3 million inmates in the US justice system, approximately one-half of them have a history of substance abuse and/or addiction. Someone may get arrested for a variety of things due to their addiction issues. These can include driving under the influence, stealing to pay for their habit or falling into the wrong crowd of regular law-breakers.
It can be expensive to keep up a drug or alcohol habit, so many people fall into unscrupulous activities in order to pay for their habit. They may steal from loved ones, rob people or businesses or put others in danger due to their addiction. They also may get caught with having illegal substances or paraphernalia on them. These actions are more often than not very uncharacteristic actions of the person, and luckily, many judges understand this.
Getting Help While Awaiting Sentencing
If your client is awaiting sentencing for a crime they committed as a result of their drug addiction, they can put that time to good use and enter treatment for their addiction. It show a great deal of effort that they are working to get their life back on track. In addition, it shows that they understand the severity of their crime and how much their addiction has impacted their life. It is the first step to take in order to prevent it from happening again.
Staging an Intervention
If your client isn’t serious about getting clean quite yet, convincing the family to stage an intervention might be one of the best routes to take. In addition, the family of your client might come to you and ask for your participation in an intervention. When this takes place, your client will hear from their family about all the reasons they should go to treatment, how much they are loved and what consequences might be in place if they choose not to go.
Having attorneys present in an intervention can help them see the more logistical reasoning for going to treatment, and what legal implications might be in place if they do not. Once they hear about how going to treatment can help their court case, they could be more inclined to go to treatment and take it seriously once they arrive. Attorneys can make all the difference in an intervention when a person is deciding whether or not to go, and it just might save your client’s life.
Ask for Treatment Instead of Jail Time
If your client has a drug-related offense, it could be possible for you to ask for treatment instead of jail time and save their life in the process. This all depends on the local laws, however, if your client meets any of the following guidelines, they may have a good chance of avoiding jail time:
- If your client is a first or second time offender
- If your client does not have a history of violent or sexual crimes
- If your client was arrested for a drug-related crime
- If your client has a previous history of addiction
- If your client was under the influence when their crime was committed
- If you can prove that your client’s addiction contributed to their actions
- If your client is willing to follow treatment and take it seriously
Going to jail is expensive for taxpayers, and courts may want to chose treatment over jail whenever possible. In addition, addiction issues do not simply go away when someone is sentenced to jail time. Quite alternatively, their addiction could get worse and flourish inside of jail. If your client is caught using drugs while in jail, their legal troubles will get exponentially worse.
There is a potential that they can come out of serving their jail time a more severe addict than when they went in. Their criminal activity once released can get worse right along with it. Seeking treatment instead of jail time can not only save your client’s life, but it will save taxpayers and the courts money. In the long run, recidivism rates and additional care while incarcerated are more expensive than treatment.
About Pinelands Recovery Center
Treatment for addiction is the ideal option for anyone experiencing legal troubles as a result of their addiction. We offer intervention assistance, as well as a 24/7 phone line for attorneys and their client to call and confidentially ask any questions. Your client does not have to live the rest of their life with a scarlet letter from their past. Getting help and moving on is possible, and we are here to help you and your client every step of the way.
Pinelands Recovery Center of Medford is widely known as one of New Jersey’s finest, most respected addiction treatment facilities. With comfortable 30-bed accommodations and a 24-hour professional staff, we can offer clients a serene, relaxing environment amid the lush piney woods. This stress-free setting with its sense of warmth and welcoming enables you to feel comfortable and confident about your clean and sober life ahead.
We will establish clear goals, both general in nature and specific to your needs. We continue to monitor those goals, to make sure that our clients are progressing and buying into their recovery plan. At Pinelands, we thrive on assisting clients in feeling connected to the recovery community, share and demonstrate effective coping techniques, help clients to modify attitudes and patterns of behavior and everything else you will need to be happy and productive living a sober, healthy life.
We ensure that clients complete their planned concrete tasks, encourage hope, optimism and
healthy living. Our recovery program is not a revolving door treatment program; it is a recovery model designed to help clients go on to lead productive, happy lives. For more information, visit pinelandsrecovery.com