Such scrutiny is long overdue. Such a strategy would allow states to incarcerate more violent offenders in prison cells now wasted on low-level drug offenders. In 1992, Tennessee followed this course, halving sentences for low-level cocaine sales while increasing sentences for sex offenders, whose high recidivism rates mean that society's benefit from their removal is clear and straightforward. At least ten other states are considering similar moves, in part because the federal courts have mandated they cut their prison populations to alleviate overcrowding. Granted, treatment costs money, too.
Many good programs cost much less.
Nobody suggests that drug treatment will always work. If we don't think we can continue to deprive large percentages of the hard-working and worthy poor of these benefits while providing them to those who are by definition law breakers, we might consider shifting our budgetary priorities away from prisons and toward other human investments. 14, June 23, 1993. This article may not be resold, reprinted, or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the author.