Rebecca Hauk's List: Sociology prison project

• Last night, the New Mexico State Legislature passed the Substance Abuse and  Crime Prevention Act with overwhelming bi-partisan support.
• This bill proposes appropriate community-based treatment, instead of  incarceration, for non-violent drug possession offenders and people with  drug-related probation or parole violations
• The Legislature has given our Governor an opportunity to help New Mexico's  families break the cycle of addiction and incarceration, improve public safety  and save millions of dollars
• Similar legislation passed by other states has proven to be a cost-effective,  common-sense solution to treat addiction as a health issue, not a criminal one
• enhance public safety by reducing drug-related crime and preserving jail and  prison space for violent offenders

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• What’s more, this quack grass bears little fruit. The state’s violent crime  index has actually increased during the prison boom.
• nonviolent offenders, many of them addicts to drugs and alcohol.
• nonviolent offenders now make up nearly two-thirds of new commitments.
• 37 percent — of those new commitments are for drug and DUI offenses

• He’d happily give his bed to somebody else. In fact, he was supposed to,  months ago. He arrived with only a few months of his sentence left to serve, not  enough time to get through a required substance-abuse program before he is  eligible for parole.

   

  He’s already served his time. He just can’t complete the program.

   

  Instead of completing his rehab in a community-based drug clinic, he gets  guarded and housed and fed three meals a day courtesy of the Commonwealth.
• Plus, many judges sentence drug offenders to state time in the first place  simply because there are no substance-abuse programs at home.
• Instead, they enacted reforms aimed at reducing the number of repeat offenders.

• Instead of throwing more money at the problem or throwing up their hands,  they attacked the cause of the problem.

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