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Resumo

In the face of rising imprisonment costs, drug treatment has become an increasingly popular alternative to incarceration. Yet little work has been done concerning the nature of the treatment systems for offenders. This study examines rehabilitative practice within a residential drug treatment facility that works closely with the criminal justice system. The target of rehabilitative reform is revealed to be a 'drugs lifestyle' whose description strongly recalls earlier discussions of the 'culture of poverty'. Residents are deemed to be in need of disciplinary control in order to foster an emotional disposition oriented toward accepting boredom, following rules, responding calmly to being yelled at by supervisors, and other skills useful in the low-wage labor market. Given its apparent functions in terms of social control, the fact that some participants find the harsh disciplinary system beneficial requires explanation, and it is argued that rehabilitation fosters new forms of agency that are associated with leaving the informal labor market and entering the lower tiers of formalized labor. Understanding the benefits of drug treatment requires a careful conceptualization of agency, treating it as a characteristic that emerges from within social formations rather than in opposition to them.

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