Prison alternatives
Published: Mon, Mar. 03, 2008 12:30AM
Modified Mon, Mar. 03, 2008 06:12AM
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closeIn your Feb. 18 article on rising inmate populations, you referenced two solutions: building prisons or reducing sentences. There are hundreds of people who have come to TROSA as an alternative to incarceration, and their lives are much better because of it. Alternative sentencing is a solution that the state should not discount.
National studies have shown that substance-abuse treatment greatly reduces the chances of an ex-offender re-entering the prison system. TROSA, a two-year substance-abuse treatment program, offers people not only tools to fight addiction, but also job training and education.
Programs like TROSA, now more than ever, can help us take a sensible approach to prison overcrowding and its root causes. We cannot do it alone, though: Community programs need to be embraced by the justice system as sentencing alternatives and funded as such. This approach will save the state not only dollars but lives.
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Kevin McDonald
President and CEO, TROSA
Durham
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