Perkins hated political maneuvering. In his ideal world, the economics of securing help worked like this: Since addicts would be diverted from jail, the cost savings from their empty jail beds could be put toward treatment. “The problem is, it’s easier to give money to the corrections system—to the tune of one billion in the state of Virginia—than it is to take a couple of million dollars and provide inpatient treatment for our problem,” he railed, blaming politics and the tendency among jailers and sheriff’s departments to cling to bloated incarceration budgets championed during the War on
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