Judge Frank Hoover is misleading in his Sept. 17 Viewpoint article
about Proposition 36. The truth is that even the mild reforms
advocated by Proposition 36 would save California the need to
construct to a new prison and would additionally keep an estimated
37,000 non-violent drug offenders a year out of prison. Given that
California already has by far the highest rate of incarceration of
non-violent drug users in the nations, the present system -- the one
he defends -- is doing a miserable job.

The savings to California, a state which has already mortgaged its
educational future to build prisons, would be at least $350 million a
year.

One need look no further than the fact that Hoover is a drug court
judge who spent his early career as a prosecutor to understand his
motivation. We have a drug policy which is predicated on punishment --
even as it claims to treat nearly all drug use as an addition. He also
strongly implies that any "scheme to keep people out of jail for using
any drugs, even the hard drugs like heroin, crack and date rape drugs
like rohypnol" is wrong. This is bizarre, since he's participating in
a plan (drug court) which claims to be doing just that.

"Accountability" won't be lost under 36; it would simply be deferred
until less coercive treatment had received a realistic trial. A
similar system was passed in Arizona in 1996. It has been working well
and saving money for Arizona ever since.

Tom O'Connell,
San Mateo

Bookmark: additional articles on California's Prop 36 are available at
http://www.mapinc.org/prop36.htm