OKLAHOMA ISN'T THE ONLY STATE GRAPPLING WITH OVERCROWDED

To The Editor:

OKLAHOMA ISN'T THE ONLY STATE GRAPPLING WITH OVERCROWDED prisons. Many
states facing severe budget shortfalls are pursing alternatives to
incarceration for nonviolent drug offenders. Unfortunately, an arrest
is often a necessary prerequisite for drug treatment.

Fear of criminal sanctions compels many problem drug users to suffer
in silence. Would alcoholics seek treatment if doing so were
tantamount to confessing to criminal activity? Toning down the
tough-on-drugs rhetoric would help facilitate rehabilitation. The
option of increased drug treatment alternatives would do more than
save taxpayers money.

Public safety is at stake. Prisons transmit violent habits rather than
reduce them. Most drug offenders are eventually released, with dismal
job prospects due to criminal records. Turning recreational drug users
into career criminals is a senseless waste of tax dollars.

Alcohol and tobacco are by far the deadliest recreational drugs, yet
the government doesn't go out of its way to destroy the lives of
drinkers and smokers. Imagine if every alcoholic were thrown in jail
and given a permanent criminal record. How many lives would be
destroyed? How many families would be torn apart? How many tax dollars
would be wasted turning potentially productive members of society into
hardened criminals?

Robert Sharpe, Washington, D.C.

Sharpe is with the Drug Policy Alliance, an anti-drug war lobbying
group.