PRISON ALTERNATIVES

In your Feb. 18 article on rising inmate populations, you referenced
two solutions: building prisons or reducing sentences. There are
hundreds of people who have come to TROSA as an alternative to
incarceration, and their lives are much better because of it.
Alternative sentencing is a solution that the state should not discount.

National studies have shown that substance-abuse treatment greatly
reduces the chances of an ex-offender re-entering the prison system.
TROSA, a two-year substance-abuse treatment program, offers people not
only tools to fight addiction, but also job training and education.
Programs like TROSA, now more than ever, can help us take a sensible
approach to prison overcrowding and its root causes. We cannot do it
alone, though: Community programs need to be embraced by the justice
system as sentencing alternatives and funded as such. This approach
will save the state not only dollars but lives.

Kevin McDonald

President and CEO, TROSA Durham