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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