Good, it is about time they cut these feel good programs. They are not worth the price

Posted by Kathy on 24 February 2008 @ 1pm

Well, when I say that they’re effective (both in terms of outcomes and reducing government spending), I’m thinking of studies on the topic by James Nolan (”Reinventing Justice” and “Drug Courts in Theory and Practice”), Peters & Murrin (”Effectiveness of Treatment-Based Drug Courts in Reducing Criminal Recidivism”), and Goldkamp et al (”Do drug courts work? Getting inside the drug court black box”).

So when you say that they’re not worth the price, tell me, on what data do you base that conclusion? Or do you just think on principle that it’s logical that we put people in prison for possession of marijuana?

Posted by Waldo Jaquith on 24 February 2008 @ 2pm

Well the last time we chatted you stated you did not know enough about the system to comment, when asked about Camblos you said that was an exception. Now I guess you are an expert on this also. Welcome to the club of the informed.

Marijuana should be legal, and already is for the most part. Remember the guy Jade said had 8 million worth of marijuana in his yard. What did he get 30 days? Hell I would do 30 days for 8 million. Oh, by the way, drug court does not take marijuana cases, and if they do it is very rare.

As for your studies, I have no doubt that they can be affective, but at what price. The drug court folks are experts at statistical manipulation to make their point. Ask these questions. How much have they spent over the lifetime of the program? How many people have completed the program? How many of those have been arrested again? Once those questions are answered, only then can you have the real value. Or do you not now enough about the system to comment.

Posted by Kathy on 26 February 2008 @ 5pm

Hey, if Little Wat, and Kathy say it don’t add up, who is the Sheriff of Albemarle to question their superior math skills? Now about that dude that tucked $8 million dollars worth of stink weed into his back yard…how many hectares in that parcel missy?

Posted by Bubby on 3 March 2008 @ 2pm

You are right, who better to talk about drug rehab than a cop. Please, as Randall Tex Cobb said in Raising Arizona. You want to find a donut shop, call a cop. Do the math yourself. You will be shocked what you see.

Posted by Kathy on 6 March 2008 @ 7am

You got your outrage exactly backwards.

The cops and the DA will pull the entire plant, weigh everything right down to the root-ball, and multiply that by the biggest-ass retail number they can find on the street - just to nail the fool and bedazzle you with the magnitude of the crime. That kind of cha-ching makes it a kingpin thing and wins the LEO’s an accolade. Never mind the collateral costs.

Lets talk about the cost of failure. The Virginia prison budget just topped $1 billion. 40,000 Virginians are in prison at a cost of $25,000 each. While arrests are up 14% in the last six years, the rate of incarceration is up 42%.

As a representative from the Virginia Departments of Corrections told the HOD - “we should remember four numbers - 6, 6, 100 million, and 225 million.” At the current rate, we needed six new prisons over the course of the next six years at a cost to build of $100 million dollars a piece and a cost of $225 million dollars a year to operate.

And when Del. Dwight C. Jones of Richmond recently offered legislation - HB 906 (supported by a 13,000 signature petition drive), to afford Virginia prisoners 2.5 extra good conduct days each month, only Del. Jim Shuler defended it. The fiscal-impact statement indicated that this legislation might save the Commonwealth hundreds of millions of dollars over the next several years. Del.Todd Gilbert and two of his Republican buddies killed the bill before it could reach the floor.

Nearly half of the inmates in Virginia’s prisons ended up there on a parole violation - usually a failed drug test. So when Sheriff Harding, a man who has stood in the trenches and observed the rising tide of enforcement failure, starts a drug court to effectively divert people from prison, I’m all ears. Virginia has to find a better way than to incarcerate one in every 44 adult Virginians. That’s a lot of potential taxpayers.

Posted by Bubby on 7 March 2008 @ 10am