New Jersey Governor Calls for Mandatory Treatment for Low-Level Drug Offenders

By Join Together Staff | drugfree.org | January 20, 2012

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie this week called for mandatory treatment for all low-level drug offenders. The Wall Street Journal calls it “the most sweeping criminal-justice proposal of his tenure.”

In his State of the State address, Christie said, “”Every one of God’s creations can be redeemed. Everyone deserves a second chance.” He also called for a revision of bail laws to keep violent drug dealers in prison. He said the state’s bail system should mirror the federal courts, where judges decide whether violent offenders should remain in jail while they await trial if they are considered to be a threat to society or a flight risk.

According to the article, drug treatment advocates say the state’s residential drug treatment facilities are already overcrowded. “There are waiting lists of people begging to get into drug treatment. We should fund and expand it for the people who want it,” said Roseanne Scotti, Director of the Drug Policy Alliance in New Jersey.

In 2010, there were 51,985 people admitted into substance-abuse programs in New Jersey, compared with 47,442 in 2008. An estimated 62 percent of New Jersey prison inmates have a moderate to severe drug addiction, the article states.

Christie once served on the board of a Daytop Village treatment program, and his wife volunteers with former convicts, including at drug treatment centers, the newspaper notes.

Hardline A-G hits back at his critics

Anna Patty | SMH | February 3, 2012

It didn't take long for the vitriol over the state government's approach to law and order to start.

Ten months after the NSW election, the opposition and tabloid media have been dishing it out to the Attorney-General, Greg Smith, accusing him of being soft on crime.

One radio talk-back host recently accused Smith of being a step away from the Greens, saying he had failed to earn his stripes as a conservative Attorney-General.

When it comes to the rehabilitation of non-violent offenders, Smith would agree.

He says he is "more left-wing on issues like dealing with prisoners and rehabilitation than any other Attorney-General in the country".

But Smith, reputed as a tough public prosecutor when he worked for the DPP - having put away murderers including those who killed policeman David Carty - is hardline when it comes to serious violence.

In response to a recent spate of drive-by shootings in Sydney's south-west, the opposition and some commentators have confused the distinction Smith has made between his different approaches to sentencing and rehabilitation.

He believes in non-custodial sentences for less serious offenders and rehabilitation for people with drug and alcohol addiction or mental health problems.

When it comes to people guilty of serious violent crime, including the "buffoons" responsible for the shootings, repeat offenders and those guilty of child sex offences, Smith wants to toughen punishments.

Smith recently asked the Supreme Court to look at how judgments against people convicted of sex offences against children could be strengthened.

The Baltimore of The Wire and the doctor trying to change the brains of those who grow up there

Richard Glover | 702 ABC Radio | 10 November 2011

Professor Robert Blum is a world expert on the adolescent brain.

Here he explains to Richard Glover how dysfunction is built into the brains of those depicted in The Wire.

Download the audio file

NSW to run 'social impact bond' pilot

RN Breakfast | 6 September 2011

The NSW Government will hand down its first budget today - describing it as 'deliberately ambitious'. The government will launch a pilot tender process dubbed 'social benefit bonds' where private investors are encouraged to fund social programs such as reducing demand for foster care and lowering re-offending rates among former prisoners.

Listen to Fran Kelly's interview with Peter Shergold, Chancellor of the University of Western Sydney and professorial chair at the Centre for Social Impact at the University of NSW.

O'Farrell pledges 10 million for rehab

From the SMH, 19 January 2011:

The NSW opposition has pledged $10 million to boost rehabilitation services for drug and alcohol problems in an election promise they say will help an extra 5000 people.

NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell on Wednesday announced the four-year funding promise, which would see government and non-government rehabilitation services tendering for the additional funding.

"This program today will enable an additional 5000 people to get treatment, to get assistance to get off their treatment, and will have the added benefit of relieving pressure on emergency departments, on acute beds in hospitals, which too often, because of the lack of these services, are filled up with those who suffer addiction," he said.

The Salvation Army's Clinical Director of Recovery Services, Gerard Byrne, said the funding would help organisations like his meet the growing demand for help.

"For a long time we and other organisations such as ours have struggled to meet the demand for services," he said.

"The provision of such a good quantum of funds to provide a sustainable and viable financial basis on which we can then provide our services is very welcome."

The NSW state election will be held on March 26.

But Darren Marton, director of The No-Way Campaign and independent upper house candidate at the upcoming poll, expressed disappointment that funds had not been committed to prevention services.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm all for rehabilitation, but I think our focus and direction should be first and foremost on prevention," he said.

"Trying to turn around a generation over the next couple of generations to make drugs not as prevalent as they are."