'GET TOUGH' LAWS DON'T WORK

In response to Kinlock C. Walpole's Sept. 8 Speaking Out:
"Stop the prison pipeline": Mandatory minimum prison
sentences have done little other than give the land of the
free the highest incarceration rate in the world. The
deterrent value of anti-drug enforcement is grossly overrated.

Consider the crack epidemic of the eighties. New York City chose the
zero tolerance approach, opting to arrest and prosecute as many
offenders as possible. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry
was smoking crack and America's capital had the highest per capita
murder rate in the country. Yet crack use declined in both cities
simultaneously.

The decline was not due to a slick anti-drug advertising campaign or
the passage of mandatory minimum sentencing laws. Simply put, the
younger generation saw first-hand what crack was doing to their older
siblings and decided for themselves that crack was bad news.

This is not to say nothing can be done about hard drugs like crack or
methamphetamine, the latest headline grabber. Access to substance
abuse treatment is critical. Diverting resources away from prisons and
into cost-effective treatment would save both tax dollars and lives.

Robert Sharpe

Policy Analyst

Common Sense for Drug Policy

Washington, D.C.