Pubdate: Fri, 06 Sep 2002 Source: Detroit Free Press (MI) Copyright: 2002 Detroit Free Press Contact: http://www.freep.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/125 Author: Barbara R. Levine Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment) BUILD MINDS INSTEAD OF PRISONS Your Sept. 1 editorial about spending on prisons instead of education was right on the money ("Prison Precedence: State should be building opportunities, not more cellblocks, for minority men"). There is no question that investing in children -- for preschool; K-12; medical, mental health and nutritional care; and preventing abuse and neglect -- is the long-term solution to crime. Constant prison expansion is not a solution to crime even in the short run. Contrary to political rhetoric, we are not paying to keep ourselves safe from the 50,000 most dangerous people in Michigan. Hundreds of millions of dollars go to locking up property and drug offenders, aging prisoners with medical problems, people with good institutional records who are being kept far longer than their sentencing judges intended, and probationers and parolees who have violated the terms of their supervision but who have not committed new crimes. We lock up the mentally ill, the addicted and the illiterate instead of investing more in mental health treatment, substance abuse prevention and education. The enormous growth in corrections spending has resulted from deliberate policy choices that should be publicly debated and assessed for their cost-effectiveness, not their emotional appeal. Barbara R. Levine, Executive Director, Citizens Alliance on Prisons and Public Safety Lansing - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager