To the Editor:
"Drug Laws That Misfired" (editorial, June 5), lamenting the failure of New
York's Rockefeller drug laws, did not mention one salient point.

If New York had used the $4 billion spent on prison construction over
the last 20 years to treat people for their substance abuse problems
instead of jailing them, there would be substantially less addiction
today.

Eighty percent of the women who have been imprisoned are mothers
separated from their children. Many have been sent away for years for
crimes no greater than possession of a controlled substance.

The result of a rising female prison population is children growing up
without mothers, contributing to a circle of dysfunction in society.

Instead of imprisoning these women, we should place them in treatment
programs and reunite them with their children.

KATHLEEN RIDDLE
Staten Island, June 7, 2000

The writer is president of the Association of Alcoholism and Substance
Abuse Providers of New York State.