Addiction treatment programs v. jail time
The Contra Costa Times, a local newspaper outside San Francisco, has an interested piece that looks at the strengths and minuses of addiction treatment programs versus prison or jail terms. The piece profiles 32-year-old John Delino who went in and out of jail and treatment programs until he pulled himself together. But that program is running out of funding and not everyone is sold on its merits.
On Nov. 4, California voters will decide on Proposition 5, known as the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act of 2008, which would expand and build upon Proposition 36–the one that funded Delino’s treatment– with an infusion of $385 million a year in state funding to pay for adult treatment and $65 million for youth programs. Read the article to get a better sense of the controversy around this proposition and watch video below in which Delino talks about his bouts with treatment and how he finally became sober in 2004:
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: Have you turned to a treatment program to help a family member who was going in and out of jail? Did the program help?
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We want them to have self-worth, so we destroy their self-worth. We want them to be responsible, so we take away all responsibility. We want them to be positive and constructive, so we degrade them and make them useless. We want them to be trust worthy, so we put them where there is no trust. We want them to be non-violent, so we put them where violence is all around them. We want them to be kind and loving people, so we subject them to hatred and cruelty. We want them to quit being the tough guy, so we put them where the tough guy is respected. We want them to quit hanging around losers, so we put all the losers in the state under one roof. We want them to quit exploiting us, so we put them where they exploit each other. We want them to take control of their lives and quit being a parasite on society, so we make them totally dependent on us.”
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tanyahalette
advisor