Pubdate: Tue, 18 Dec 2007
Source: Daily News, The (Longview, WA)
Copyright: 2007 The Daily News
Contact: http://www.tdn.com/forms/letters.php
Website: http://www.tdn.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2621
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1457/a02.html
Author: Robert Sharpe

ARREST SHOULDN'T BE REQUIRED

The County Drug Court is 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 
was 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 a cost of more than $34,000 
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

Policy analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy

Arlington, Va.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom