The article re-examines claims on the benefits of drug treatment programs for jail and prison inmates, especially therapeutic community type programs. Some claim that most of the serious crime in the United States could be eliminated through a massive expansion of prison drug treatment. Before such an expensive program could be implemented, several assumptions must be examined: (1) most of the crime committed in the US each year can be directly traced to untreated inmates released to the streets; (2) the number of inmates who can be treated; and (3) the impact of treatment. The article concludes that the promise of therapeutic communities within prisons is being oversold without a careful evaluation of what to expect from a well-intentioned concept, and recommends increasing the availability of drug treatment programs for offenders outside of the prison and jail environment, i.e., instead of advocating treatment in prison, trying treatment instead of prison. Tables, references, bibliography