TREATMENT COSTS LESS

Cutting substance abuse treatment in the N.C. Department of Correction may
seem like a cost-cutting measure to many. It certainly is not!

Cut treatment and you will increase crime, the cost to the taxpayer for
arrest, trial, incarceration, and support of the inmate's family while the
inmate is being warehoused without appropriate substance abuse treatment.

When people suffering from addictive disease receive appropriate substance
disorder treatment, they just don't commit as many crimes. The streets get
safer, and little boys and girls have mommies and daddies at home, instead
of in prison. North Carolina needs more substance disorder treatment in the
Department of Correction. It saves money in the long run.

I hope our lawmakers and policy makers stop thinking like many criminals:
failing to plan for the future in an attempt to make a buck today.

ROBERT G. BOCK Jr.

Durham April 5, 2002

The writer is project director of criminal justice programs for the Alcohol
and Drug Council of North Carolina.