ALL ABOUT ALTERNATIVES

Low-level drug dealers face some of the people they hurt and are given
a final opportunity to turn their lives around and become productive
citizens.

A program designed to expose low-level drug offenders to the
consequences of their actions - and turn their lives around - is a
good alternative to simply filling jails and prisons with them.

An article by Journal Sentinel reporter Annysa Johnson recently told
how, through a special program, drug dealers came face to face with
some of the people they hurt directly and indirectly. The contact is
designed to appeal to offenders' emotions and to show them that their
actions aren't the victimless crimes they might imagine.

At a call-in organized by the Marquette University Restorative Justice
Initiative, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, in a
north side gym, read the criminal complaints of the four men and one
woman who participated in the program. Each faced possible
imprisonment of 10 years.

"You are being given a unique opportunity to walk away from this
without a criminal record," Chisholm told the group. "But it's a
last-chance deal. If you don't take advantage of this opportunity, we
will prosecute."

Five showed up last week at the call-in. The eight who participated in
a first session in February have not re-offended. Five others who were
invited to December's meeting didn't show up and will be arrested.

Those who pledge to change are given help to do so from local social
service agencies and drug and alcohol treatment facilities. The goal
is to help them learn job skills or get into school, far better
alternatives for those who can be redeemed. One woman participating
said she was a mother of six.

The Restorative Justice Initiative is modeled after a successful
program that started in Boston in the 1990s to address low-level drug
dealers.

Restorative justice is a criminal justice approach based on
reconciliation, healing and rehabilitation. The movement promotes
humane and cost-effective alternatives to punishment and emphasizes
relationships between people who live in a community. Through this
lens, crime is seen less as an offense against the state as one
against a victim or a community.

Victimless crimes? In last week's call-in, a grandmother explained how
she had to raise her grandchildren because her drug-addicted daughter
could not.

Chisholm told the offenders that life is about choices. He's right.
Offenders, given workable alternatives and shown how their behavior
can destroy themselves and others, can choose freedom over
imprisonment.

A community also can choose. It can simply repeat a cycle that
dictates that those imprisoned are released to reoffend or it can
fashion alternatives. Where appropriate, we like the alternatives a
lot.

Do you favor offering alternatives to prison for low-level offenders?
To be considered for publication as a letter to the editor, e-mail
your opinion to the Journal Sentinel editorial department.