Higher Education vs. Prison Funding
Today, the Justice Policy Institute and the
Correctional Association of New York is releasing a study titled "New York
State of Mind? Higher Education vs. Prison Funding in the Empire State,
1988-1998." 
According to the study, New
York State's spending on prisons has grown by $761.3 million over the
past 10 years. State funds for state and city colleges have been cut
back $615 million - almost a dollar-for-dollar trade-off.
Unions representing prison guards are the
fastest-growing public employee associations in many states. In
California last year, the union was given a raise of 12 percent, which
brought the
salary for a seasoned prison guard
up to $51,000.
The effects of treatment
"It's amazing to think that even while somebody's just in treatment, it pays for itself, dollar for dollar, in reduced crime, reduced medical problems, reduced havoc in the country," Massing says. "It pays for itself. Everything else is a bonus."
With
Jaffe as drug czar, thousands of addicts sought treatment in 1972.
The
amount of time they were forced to wait for a bed decreased
dramatically. And so did crime. FBI figures in 1972 showed that crime
rates dropped in 94 of 154 U.S. cities with a population of more than
100,000. Nationally, the crime rate decreased for the first time in 17
years.
Although Jaffe says other
factors likely contributed to the lower crime rate, he notes that 90,000
people entered treatment programs when he was in charge. "An awful lot
of people stopped behaving the way they did."
Despite the successes, the Jaffe method was an easy target. Methadone treatment always has been controversial, and no politician has ever won an election by advocating more treatment for addicts. Mandatory prison sentences for drug offenders have proven more popular among voters than reducing the wait for a hospital bed.
The Reagan administration eventually cut the treatment budget by 25 percent.
There's no way to rule
innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack
down on criminals.
Well, when there aren't
enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to
be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking
laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that
for anyone?
But
just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor
objectively interpreted-and you create a nation of law-breakers-and then
you cash in on the guilt."
Ayn Rand "Atlas Shrugged"
"One of the problems is
that we are dealing with a very close-minded society." he added.
"The sad part about it is that if politicians, as
well as parents, would realize that it is their kids who are out there
shooting up then they would have a different view point. Unfortunately
they tend to think that it is not their kids.
They're wrong.
But I can't get those fools to see that."
The Netherlands
The Netherlands took the
bold step of trying to separate hard and soft drugs over 20 years ago.
This included the setting up of the so-called coffee-shops where small
quantities of cannabis can be purchased, and the treating of addiction
to harder drugs, like opiates, as the medical problem that it really is,
rather than a legal one.
As a result, they now have
the lowest rate of cannabis use by teenagers in the developed world, and
the highest survival rate of opiate addicts.
The average age of opiate addicts is now approaching 40, because largely
due to the fact that existing addicts are not dying and there are
very few new addicts coming on stream.
Freedom has costs. Among those costs might be
limiting the actions of government even when acting for a perceived
common good.
In short, if letting a few
drug runners launder money is the price of keeping the financial records
of all Americans private, the cost is tiny compared to letting the
government become privy to the day-to-day financial details of our
lives.