Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Keith Dixon's avatar

I’ve been accused of being a broken record on this, put look to Portugal (of all places) for an effective public health policy approach to drugs. Our “war” on them has created catastrophic carnage, including to law enforcement. But perhaps this is more of a federal policy issue than a state one. Regardless, great suggestion, Tom: ask the right questions. Mine is: is drug abuse a health issue or a crime?

Expand full comment
Steve Boland's avatar

I've yet to see convincing data that more incarceration means safer communities - whether that is kids or adults. We've been trying to jail our way out of these problems for years, increasing the number of people incarcerated (both raw and per person, https://www.prisonpolicy.org/profiles/MN.html) with seemingly just more incidents resulting.

I appreciate what you say about access to family, better schooling, job training, all as a part of a better solution. However, maybe we don't need to incarcerate young people (or anyone) to provide these services. What may be missing is peer-engagement and restorative justice, but institutionalization does not appear to be giving the results we claim we want. It is possible the desired result is continued institutional racism, in which case the plan for more incarceration is right on target.

Expand full comment
4 more comments...

No posts