Folks, I can't vouch for every state or the federal system, or even for every county in Ohio, but the system described by Snowguy already exists today. Most of the oettty drug offenses you describe are already addressed with probation and drug treatment. The question is what should the system do when someone like that won't seriously engage in treatment.
I'm not talking about a single relapse and trying again, but multiple relapses, failure to more than sporadically go to counseling and meet with their probation officer to piss (if at all). THAT is the type of case that results in petty heroin or Oxy possession cases winding up in prison, or even in a lockdown rehab center.
FWIW, with an occassional alcohol-fueled repeat domestic violence/serious assault/mega-repeat OVI, "drug-related crime" is nearly redundant. With the above alcohol-inspired exceptions (yes, booze is a drug), almost every felony offense I see--burglaries, forgeries, robberies, credit card and ID frauds, etc.--are driven by a serious illegal hard drug addiction. Most often heroin which, relative to other drugs, is cheap. It's SOOOO damn addictive though that the whole "black market prices drives people to crime to feed their habit" theory just doesn't jive with reality. If hits were legal and say half the cost of current street value, addicts would still need to commit crimes to feed the utterly voracious nature of heroin addiction.
Anyhoo, I too generally agree with Snowguy, but other than the pen can be a dangerous place due to other inmates (thank you for the budget cuts, Gov. Kasich), it's already in place.
Any further constructive suggestions from the gallery? I'm all ears.
I'm saying that my suggestions should be implemented nationwide. People in Louisiana end up in prison for possession of small amounts of marijuana all the time. And all the budget cutting they love to do down there makes their prisons dangerous. A dangerous prison is cruel and unusual punishment, imo.
My state has one of the lowest incarceration rates of any state. People are given a 2nd chance here and most judges are very supportive of giving people plenty of chances to engage in treatment (whether it be chemical dependency, sex offender treatment, anger management, etc.)
Even so, the sentences for crimes here tend to be too long. And judges love to do things like slap a no-drink order on somebody who stole a shirt from the mall.. and they end up having their sentence executed because they were caught out at the bar. It's ridiculous.
Progress is being made, Badger.. but there's a lot of work to do yet.
