TREATMENT FOR ADDICTS

Jail Time Not The Best Route To Take

Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan last week endorsed a proposal to create
a treatment program as an alternative to jail time for women convicted of
non-violent drug crimes.

State Rep. Tom Dart (D-Chicago) said he will introduce legislation in the
spring session of the General Assembly to create the treatment alternative.

Sheahan said no treatment alternative currently exists for women convicted
of non-violent drug offenses. The only option for judges is to impose
prison time on these women, most of whom in Cook County are single mothers.
Children of these women are six times more likely than other children to be
arrested themselves, Sheahan said.

Under the proposal Dart said he would introduce, women who would face
prison sentences of one to five years under current law could instead be
required to go through a one-year treatment program. Sheahan said he favors
a residential treatment program that would be run in Cook County Jail and
could serve 100 women in the first year.

The Sheahan-Dart proposal would be a positive alternative to prison
sentences that frequently function as finishing schools for apprentice
criminals. It's an alternative that would cost the taxpayers less that
imprisonment and might yield positive results for the women who go through
it. We urge lawmakers to get behind this proposal when Dart brings it forward.