Policies for Handling Offender Sentencing That Makes Sense
by Lisa Frederiksen
There is a new approach to handling, sentencing and incarcerating offenders that is gaining a lot of traction across the country. It involves treating the contributing factors to crime – substance abuse and mental illness. [This post discusses the connection between mental illness and alcohol abuse/addiction]. As I’ve presented in several posts on this site, when a person is in the throws of an addiction (illegal drugs, prescription drugs and/or alcohol), their brain is seriously compromised, which means their decision-making capabilities are also seriously compromised. [This post discusses addiction and cravings, for example.]
So how is this new approach taking shape?
Ohio’s criminal prosecutors, for example, are backing a plan to amend “tough-on-crime” laws and give judges greater flexibility to send drug offenders to drug treatment rather than prison. New York legislators have reached an agreement with Governor Paterson to repeal mandatory-minimum prison sentences and allow judges to send first-time nonviolent offenders to treatment, as well as to expand treatment programs and drug courts (check out the link – drugs courts make so much sense!). On the campaign trail, President Obama and Vice-President Biden supported the idea of giving first-time, nonviolent offenders a chance to serve their sentences in a drug rehabilitation center rather than in federal prison, as well as the wider use of drug courts (campaign promises that look as if they could become realities given the focus of the President’s Drug Czar nominee, Seattle Police Chief R. Gil Kerlikowske). And just a few days ago, Senators Jim Webb and Arlen Spector unveiled bi-partisan legislation to form a commission to conduct a top-down review of the nation’s entire criminal justice system and offer concrete recommendations for reform.
I urge you to follow this new policy direction that seems to be taking hold and weigh in with your thoughts. As Senator Web explains, “with 5% of the world’s population, our country now houses 25% of the world’s reported prisoners.” What we’re doing is not working.
