Pubdate: Sun, 14 Oct 2007
Source: Home News Tribune (East Brunswick, NJ)
Copyright: 2007 Home News Tribune
Contact:  http://www.thnt.com/hnt/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/825
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1104/a05.html
Author: Robert Sharpe

IS ARREST WHAT IT TAKES TO GAIN DRUG TREATMENT?

New Jersey's drug court is definitely a step in the right direction 
(as noted in the Sept. 23 editorial "Broader access to drug court 
welcome"), 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

WASHINGTON, DC
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman