Pubdate: Fri, 20 Jun 2008
Source: Daily Press (Newport News,VA)
Copyright: 2008 The Daily Press
Contact:  http://www.dailypress.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/585
Author: David Lerman
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

WEBB URGES FRESH LOOK AT THE WAR ON DRUGS

The Senator Says Billions Spent On Locking People Up Hasn't Reduced 
The Flow Of Drugs.

Virginia Sen. Jim Webb began building a public case Thursday to 
change the nation's drug laws to stress treatment over incarceration 
for nonviolent offenders.

The freshman Democrat held a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee 
to solicit testimony from prosecutors and scholars who argued that 
the decades-long emphasis on incarceration has been costly and ineffective.

Armed with statistics showing soaring incarceration rates and drug 
seizures, Webb argued -- and his witnesses agreed -- that authorities 
have failed to reduce the supply of drugs appreciably.

"Despite the number of people we have arrested, the illegal drug 
industry and the flow of drugs to our citizens remain undiminished," Webb said.

While much of his work in the Senate has focused on the Iraq war and 
a new GI bill for veterans, Webb has sought to stir a public debate 
on an issue he acknowledged could be politically perilous. Advocating 
reductions in prison time, of course, can trigger charges of being 
"soft on crime."

But with more than 2 million Americans now behind bars and drug 
offenders swamping the prisons, Webb argued, it may be more cost 
effective to consider treatment options for nonviolent offenders.

"The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and 
use of marijuana," Webb wrote in his new book, "A Time to Fight."

He added in the book: "Drug addiction is not in and of itself a 
criminal act. It is a medical condition, indeed a disease, just as 
alcoholism is, and we don't lock people up for being alcoholics."

Webb was not quite as blunt at Thursday's hearing, however, and said 
he was not pursuing any specific legislation at the moment.

"We're just trying to get the facts out," he said.

Joining Webb for the joint Senate-House hearing was Rep. Robert C. 
"Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, a longtime critic of prison-focused 
crime policies. Scott, chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee 
on crime, said prevention programs such as prenatal care, 
early-childhood education, summer jobs and access to college would 
prove more cost effective than spending $65 billion a year to lock 
people up, as the United States does today.

In a sign of the political stalemate over crime policy on Capitol 
Hill, however, no Republicans attended Thursday's hearing.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom