Pot times
Drug Courts Are Step In Right Direction
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1096/a04.htmlNewshawk: chip
Pubdate: Sun, 10 Jul 2005 DRUG COURTS ARE STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION
Source: Chapel Hill News (NC)
Copyright: 2005 Chapel Hill News
Contact:
editor@nando.com
Website: http://www.chapelhillnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1081
Author: Robert Sharpe
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159
(Drug Courts)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm
(Incarceration)
Regarding Mark Schultz's July 3 Editor's Desk column "Prosecutor praises
alternative court program," drug courts are definitely a step in the right
direction, but an arrest should not be a necessary prerequisite for drug
treatment. Would alcoholics seek help for their illness if doing so were
tantamount to confessing to criminal activity? Likewise, would putting every
incorrigible alcoholic behind bars and saddling them with criminal records prove
cost-effective?
The United States recently earned the dubious distinction of having the highest
incarceration rate in the world, with drug offenses accounting for the majority
of federal incarcerations.
This is big government at its worst. At an average cost of $26,134 per
inmate annually, maintaining the world's largest prison system can hardly be
considered fiscally conservative.
The threat of prison that coerced treatment relies upon can backfire when it's
actually put to use. Prisons transmit violent habits rather than reduce
them. Imagine if every alcoholic were thrown in jail and given a permanent
criminal record.
How many lives would be destroyed? How many families torn apart? How many tax
dollars would be wasted turning potentially productive members of society into
hardened criminals?
- -- Robert Sharpe
Arlington, Va.
