According to an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel last week, the city of Waukesha recently received a $350,000 grant to start a special court for nonviolent drug-dependent criminals.
The goal of this drug court is to combat the rise in abuse of opiates, including both heroin and prescription drugs. Over the next three years, it will serve 75 people who have not been convicted in criminal court but will be sentenced upon completion of their drug court program. Participation in a drug court usually promises a reduced sentence in criminal court.
District Attorney Brad Schimel explained the “program will have rigorous treatment and monitoring aspects to it.” It will also include intensive drug testing.
This initiative is in stark contrast with the standard American procedure for controlling drug-related nonviolent crime, also known as mass imprisonment. Since the beginning of the war on drugs in the ’80s, the United States’ prison population has more than quadrupled, while the rate of violent crime has remained relatively constant. In that same period of time, the incarceration of drug offenders has increased by a factor of 10.
While a policy of imprisonment hasn’t put a dent in this nation’s illicit drug problem, it has created the problem of overflowing prisons. The U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world, at 0.7 percent. The cost of supporting such a massive prison system consumes serious taxpayer dollars, significantly hampering the already struggling economy. In addition, there are the societal costs of having so many nonviolent citizens behind bars.
Waukesha’s new drug court is a step in the right direction for drug policy. It is a program that intends to deal with drug-related crime through treatment and rehabilitation, rather than imprisonment. Before dealing with criminal sentencing, it addresses the problem of drug dependency, and gives nonviolent criminals the chance to overcome addiction. It is encouraging to see people in the criminal justice system who recognize that drug addiction is not a criminal offense, but rather a disease, and it is cured through treatment and rehabilitation, not years in prison. Unfortunately, not all responses to the drug epidemic have been so progressive.
Madison’s recent attempts to deal with drug-related crime have been less than satisfactory. Business owners raised complaints about the sidewalk benches on State Street, saying they attracted homeless people and were a hot spot for drug deals. The State Street Project Design Oversight Committee approved the removal of these benches, but after receiving many complaints, Mayor Paul Soglin made the executive decision to replace them. There is an ongoing discussion regarding the future of these controversial State Street benches.
Madison business owners and the Oversight Committee are missing the point. The pervasive problems of homelessness and drug dealing are as much a part of the State Street Madisonians know and love as sipping beer on a patio and spray-paint art. Although the homeless and drug dealers may sit on benches from time to time, removing these benches will bring zero solutions to two of the most serious societal dilemmas facing the United States today.
I’m glad Mayor Soglin realized the ridiculousness of such a proposal, which is comparable to blowing out a candle when the house is on fire. We need to be dealing with homelessness and drug dependency with homeless shelters, treatment and rehabilitation, not just removing the symptoms as they present themselves in front of Taco Bell on the 500 block of State Street.
Madison officials need look no further than Waukesha as an example of how to effectively deal with nonviolent drug-related crime. People who are dependent on illicit drugs don’t need prison time, and making them stand or walk rather than sit on benches on the State Street sidewalk won’t reform them. Intensive treatment programs, on the other hand, might make them productive members of our community.
Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in math and physics.
