DRUG COURTS ARE STEP IN RIGHT DIRECTION

Regarding Mark Schultz's July 3 Editor's Desk column "Prosecutor
praises alternative court program," drug courts are definitely a step
in the right direction, but an arrest should not be a necessary
prerequisite for drug treatment. Would alcoholics seek help for their
illness if doing so were tantamount to confessing to criminal
activity? Likewise, would putting every incorrigible alcoholic behind
bars and saddling them with criminal records prove cost-effective?

The United States recently earned the dubious distinction of having
the highest incarceration rate in the world, with drug offenses
accounting for the majority of federal incarcerations.

This is big government at its worst. At an average cost of $26,134
per inmate annually, maintaining the world's largest prison system
can hardly be considered fiscally conservative.

The threat of prison that coerced treatment relies upon can backfire
when it's actually put to use. Prisons transmit violent habits rather
than reduce them. Imagine if every alcoholic were thrown in jail and
given a permanent criminal record.

How many lives would be destroyed? How many families torn apart? How
many tax dollars would be wasted turning potentially productive
members of society into hardened criminals?

- -- Robert Sharpe

Arlington, Va.