WASTING DRUG ADDICTS

Connecticut state Rep. William Dyson (D.-New Haven) has been a leader in
legislative efforts to create fewer imprisoned criminals, as opposed to
Gov. John Rowland, who mostly just wants to ship them to out-of-state
prisons and forget about them.

Mr. Dyson has pushed to reduce mandatory sentences and give judges more
discretion in certain criminal cases, mostly drug-related. He wants to
increase from .5 to 1 ounce the amount of crack cocaine required to trigger
a drug-selling charge. He wants to give the courts the authority to send
alcohol- and drug-dependent offenders accused of lesser, nonviolent crimes
to treatment programs instead of jail. And he wants to give model
nonviolent criminals early release from prison.

Mr. Dyson knows that we can't afford our addiction to prisons and that we
are not helping most of the people we put in prison for drug crimes -- or
society at large. Let's hope that legislators in other states watch his
campaign to bring more reason to incarceration policies.