ALTERNATIVE SENTENCING CAN EASE JAIL CROWDING

Regarding your April 25 editorial, "An overbooked jail," Greensboro is not
the only city grappling with an overcrowded jail. Throughout the nation,
states facing budget shortfalls are pursuing alternatives to incarceration
for nonviolent drug offenders. A study conducted by the Rand Corp. found
that every dollar invested in substance abuse treatment saves taxpayers
$7.46 in societal costs. There is far more at stake than tax dollars.

The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us
believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure,
joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Not only do the children lose out,
but society as a whole does, too. Incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders
alongside hardened criminals is the equivalent of providing them with a
taxpayer-funded education in criminal behavior.

Turning drug users into unemployable ex-cons is a senseless waste of tax
dollars. It's time to declare peace in the failed drug war and begin
treating all substance abuse, legal or otherwise, as the public health
problem it is.

Robert Sharpe, Washington

The writer is a program officer, Drug Policy Alliance.