America's Prisons | Drug Treatment Can Succeed as an Alternative

Various states have begun sentencing nonviolent drug offenders to drug treatment instead of prison in order to decrease prison overcrowding and reduce drug-related crime. For example in California, Proposition 36, which was passed by voters in the November 2000 election, gives drug offenders the option to attend drug treatment instead of going to jail or prison. In the following viewpoint, Cristina Everett argues in favor of Proposition 36. She asserts that prisons do not offer drug offenders the tools to fight their addictions. Drug offenders, she insists, should be sentenced to work on...

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