Kansas Legislative Audit Concludes That Expanding Addiction Treatment Unlikely To Achieve Equivalent Reduction In Criminal Justice & Social Service Costs

A review of the Kansas state-funded addiction prevention and treatment system determined that expanding access to one-third more people would cost about $11 million, but that the cost would not be covered by equivalent reductions in state spending on other services through the criminal justice and social service systems. In fiscal year 2014, Kansas spent about $28 million to provide state-funded substance abuse prevention and treatment programs to about 23,000 individuals with income at 200% or less of the federal poverty level (FPL). If treatment were expanded to another 4,500 people, costs were estimated at . . .