LETTER OF THE WEEK

ENVISION THESE SCENES

By Suzanne Wills

Re: "Marijuana tickets not catching on - Law designed to free jail
space not used by N. Texas counties as prosecutors question
propriety," Monday news story.

Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins has brought honor to
his office with his smart-on-crime approach to the job. He should
extend it to setting up a system for processing misdemeanor citations.

Consider two scenarios:

A student is caught with a small amount of marijuana. She is
arrested and taken to jail where she is subjected to the humiliation
and degradation that is unavoidable in the situation.

She cannot post bail, so she spends several days awaiting trial. She
misses school so she is dropped by her college. She misses work, so
she loses her job. She is tried and released with the stigma of
being on probation.

She is no longer a student and will have a difficult time finding work.

Or, the same student is issued a ticket and given a court date. She
works extra hours to earn money for the fine. She goes to court and
pays it. She is still a student and is still employed. The county
is saved the cost of a trial and has collected the fine.

Both the student and the citizens of Dallas County are far better off.

Suzanne Wills, Drug Policy Forum of Texas, Dallas

Pubdate - Sat, 5 Jan 2008

Source - Dallas Morning News (TX)

Referenced - http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1514/a01.html