WORLD NEWS: THE AMERICAS: Dope wars: finding an alternative to prison: The
political crusade to wipe out drug abuse has caused the population of
prisons to soar. This has prompted the creation of a comprehensive
diversion programme: Part III: Doing time or treatment:

PART III: DOING TIME OR TREATMENT

They are called "America's disappeared". Their mothers parade in New York's
Rockefeller Plaza, carrying placards bearing their children's pictures.

Unlike the Argentine mothers of the "disappeared", whose children were
snatched by an authoritarian government in the 1980s, the New York mothers
know where their children are - but that provides little consolation.

Most of their sons and daughters are doing hard time for relatively small
drug offences, sentenced under laws passed under governor Nelson
Rockefeller almost three decades ago.

"This is America's Dark Ages," says Randy Credico, once a rising young
comedian, now an organiser of the demonstrations and purveyor of horror
tales growing out of the so-called "Rockefeller laws" in the "Empire Prison
State".

"Everyone's hurt by this war on drugs," he says. "People get pulled over
without probable cause on the highways. Cops go into their houses and check
around. I'm more frightened by the police than the guy selling drugs on my
block."

The political crusade to wipe out drug use in the US has had many
unforeseen consequences - not least the development of a corrections system
with almost 2m people in prison and 4.6m on parole and probation. About 24
per cent of them are serving sentences for drug possession or sale.

Illegal drugs have had a particularly damaging effect in the black
communities throughout America, according to groups such as Human Rights
Watch. In June, the US-based group issued a report saying the drug war was
being waged overwhelmingly against blacks. There are plenty of statistics
to support that view: the Lindesmith Center/ Drug Policy Foundation, an
independent drug research group, says that while African Americans
constitute 13 per cent of the illegal drug users in the US, they account
for 74 per cent of those sentenced for drug offences.

Attempts to divert drug addicts from prison programmes to treatment are
often met with opposition by lobbyists from the private prison industry and
others which benefit from growth in the prison population.

California, for example, has the highest incarceration rate for
drug-related crimes of any US state. An initiative on next November's
ballot would put many addicts into treatment, but the proposal is facing
well-funded opposition from the California prison guard union, the second
largest political lobby in the state.

"The penal system is big business," said Ed Barnet of Phoenix House, a drug
treatment programme in Brooklyn, New York. "People make a lot of bucks on
the backs of people going back and forth to jail. We're up against a
tremendous push to expand the system."

While resistance to change is strong in state legislatures - particularly
from districts where prisons provide much-needed jobs - the futility of
long prison terms for drug addicts has been recognised at the federal
level. "We cannot simply arrest our way out of the problems posed by
chronic drug and alcohol abusers," said General Barry McCaffrey, who runs
the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

As the Clinton administration's top drug policy official, Gen McCaffrey
oversees programmes which channel funding into the creation of a
comprehensive prison diversion system which includes drug testing,
treatment and graduated sanctions for those who do not co-operate.

But it will be years before significant reform can be achieved in a system
Gen McCaffrey describes as "ad hoc", with overflowing case loads and
prosecutors struggling to cope with "thousands of drug-addicted criminals
windmilling through the jail and prison system".

Some drug offenders have been luckier than others. In Brooklyn 10 years
ago, when drug crime was soaring and the public was beginning to give up on
addicts, Charles Hynes - a daring district attorney - launched the Drug
Treatment Alternative-to-Prison Programme (D-Tap).

The D-Tap programme offers two years of treatment to non-violent offenders
who have already served prison time. The drop-out rate is still
substantial, at about one-third in some treatment centres.

But those who "graduate" get their lives back on track: 92 per cent are
able to work, have jobs and are paying taxes, according to D-Tap figures.

Their two-year treatment costs an average Dollars 42,500 (Pounds 28,300)
compared with the Dollars 82,500 it would cost to keep an addict in prison,
officials say.

Rhonda, who did not want to give her full name, was one of those fortunate
enough to make it into the programme, and was sent to Phoenix House, a
premier treatment centre. "She was facing big time if she didn't go into
this," said David Weslin, assistant district attorney. "It forced her to
think about how she would miss her children growing up. She's someone we
thought we could turn around."

Now the attractive African-American, sporting a stylish blue blazer, guides
visitors around Phoenix House and describes tough rules it imposes on
residents. Beds must be made and clothes hung. Some residents are taught
for the first time to brush their teeth. They also receive medical care,
job training and intensive counselling from both the Phoenix House
officials and the district attorney's office.

Gen McCaffrey is a strong backer of Phoenix House and the D-Tap Programme.
But He acknowledges "a significant gap" between those who need treatment
and those who receive it.

An estimated 5m drug users were classified as needing "immediate" help in
1998; only 2.1m received it and "certain parts of the country had little
treatment capacity of any sort," Gen McCaffrey's office said in its 2000
annual report.

In Brooklyn alone last year, more than 11,000 were arrested for drug
crimes, but few received treatment - even in one of the most progressive
districts. Between 1990 and mid-2000, 1,174 defenders had been accepted in
the D-Tap programme; 248 were still in treatment and 454 had completed the
programme and had criminal charges against them dismissed. "We're very
selective, and that's why this programme works," Mr Weslin said.

Although treatment has proven more successful than prison at rehabilitating
addicts, its success is not guaranteed. "Prisons don't do anything more
than house people. We try to effect change," said Mr Barnet. "But we have
our own problems in terms of losing people . . . Every one we lose is a
life we anticipate will be back on the corner using drugs."

Tomorrow: Can science win the drugs war?