Slightly confused about CASAA

[markarich159]

Having once worked in a maxiumum security prison, I've seen a lot of prisoners with drug related offences, although I'd have to say that most of what I dealt with weren't those who were simply users caught burglarizing to be able to afford their next fix. Those offenders were in lower security facilities, or perhaps their sentences were short enough they never made it out of the county prison before they were paroled. I'm not sure I agree w/ the 70% figure, but the prison system is overcrowded and there's a lot of drug (and alcohol) related offenses. Most of what I dealt with are the dealers and those whose drug related crimes were more violent: aggravated assault, murder, DUI related crimes. I think the sad part is that the 70% figure is too high because of the sexual and child molestation crimes. Although drugs/alcohol may have been a factor in these crimes, that wasn't the big issue.

The figures from the US Department of Justice show that in County and State Facilities, 60%+ of those incarcerated are there for non-violent drug offenses(possesion and intent to distribute or non violent crimes related to drug addiction). In Federal prison, the stats are a bit better, but still, slightly over 50% of those incarcerated are there for non-violent drug related offenses. Not quite 70% , but still WAY too high. Stockpiling, ostensibly, sick people with a medically recognized disease away in prisons is not the answer. As a matter of fact you could go so far as to say it is cruel and unusual. We wouldn't ever think of doing this to any other population of humans with another disease.

P.S. Sorry , again for derailing this post. I promise this will be my last word on the matter in this forum. There are multitudes of other websites/forums dealing with this topic.