Clearly, simply being in prison is punishment. But without
rehabilitation, it's almost pointless to dicker about what's a fair
term. Most former inmates will return to crime. The high incidence of
drug abuse and broken lives (not necessarily in that order) virtually
ensure it.

Prison time without rehab is cruel and unusual punishment. And the
numbers reveal that we're beyond individual aberration and into major
societal malfunction.

In a business that is seemingly so monolithic, how did the Corcoran
substance-abuse treatment facility come into being all by itself? How
soon will it be adopted system-wide? If not, why not?

Ralph Whitaker