Choices

 I see that law enforcement up in Iredell County has arrested 22 people for drug crimes over the weekend; a sweep, a roundup, an excuse to bust down doors and drag people out by their hair, a long awaited cleansing breath that will end drug use in Statesville for, what, a day? Maybe two? Less than a week, certainly. Drug dealers deplore a vacuum. 

I've stopped believing in crime. At least, I don't believe in the kind of crime that puts most people in prison. I don't think desperation is a crime, and don't give me all that sanctimonious bullshit about choices. Choices are for people who still think they have something to lose. Choices are for people who have a position from which to negotiate. Choices. Sure. But whether they had a choice or not, for most people incarceration is not the optimal outcome - for them or us.

After 50 years in the business I have a lot to say on this topic. I am not going to say it all today. Let me just start with this. We used to house crazy people in "mental hospitals," mostly whether they liked it or not. There wasn't much treatment involved, unless you could afford a private facility. Well, old Ronnie Reagan came along and said "this is wrong, it shouldn't be so." He rightly concluded that people should receive treatment in their own communities, among their friends and neighbours, and not hauled off to some state-run facility to be dropped on a locked ward and forgotten. Reagan proposed closing those mental hospitals and sending the mentally ill to community mental health centers. Everyone nodded and agreed and shouted "Huzzah," and it was done. Well, part of it was done. They closed the mental hospitals. But there was never any federal funding for community mental health centers and the states were not about to foot the bill. 

Upshot? We now house our mentally ill in jails and prisons. They are a significant chunk of the population. Don't tell me about choices.