Drug and alcohol addiction is a problem for California jail and prison inmates, especially those incarcerated under the state's three strikes law, a California Watch report found.

While these habitual criminals are no more prone to high-risk "criminal thinking" than other inmates, they are far more likely to suffer from addiction, according to the report based on data from the California prisons department and analyzed with the help of the San Francisco  Chronicle.

According to the study, nearly 70 percent of third-strike inmates are addicts and require substance abuse treatment, a California Watch article stated. That's compared to 48 percent of all inmates.

Third-strike inmates scored "high risk" for addiction three-and-a-half times more than they scored a low risk, the article stated. Specifically among third-strikers whose last offense was a burglary, 76 percent were high risk for substance abuse.

According to California Corrections Secretary Matt Cate, more treatment programs need to be available for inmates in order to address mental issues that may cause them to break the law.

"Consider second-and third-strikers ... we're not providing nearly enough rehabilitation ... so how are they going to get better?" Cate told California Watch.

One woman who was convicted in a 2010 fatal hit-and-run incident has been caught with drugs at the Los Colinas Detention Center in San Diego numerous times, according to a recent San Diego Union-Tribune article.

Nicoll Koval pleaded guilty in July to having marijuana and a prescription muscle relaxer called cyclobenzaprine in the jail. Days earlier, she was charged with a felony count for importing methamphetamine into the jail while out on probation, the article stated. Koval also had been previously kicked out of a rehabilitation program for possessing "pruno," which is an alcoholic concoction usually made by inmates in jail or prison.

Drug abuse is also a problem for juvenile inmates in San Diego. According to an annual study by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), 55 percent of juveniles arrested and booked at San Diego county jails in 2011 were found to have drugs in their systems. Marijuana was found to be the most popular drug that showed up on the inmate drug tests.

The juvenile rate of those testing positive for drugs was only slightly lower than the number of adult arrestees who tested positive. Sixty-three percent of adult females and 58 percent of adult males booked into the jail had drugs in their systems, the SANDAG study stated.

Like others have said, SANDAG officials believe better rehabilitation services will help curb the number of people using drugs and committing crimes.

"Those who abuse drugs also are often involved in other criminal activities, such as shoplifting, vandalism, and driving under the influence," said Cynthia Burke, SANDAG Director of Criminal Justice Research. "Therefore, it's important to target prevention and intervention services to at-risk populations to reduce the harm they do to themselves and others."