Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Editorials
Tuesday, March 7, 2000Drug treatment
programs neededHAWAII legislators have realized belatedly that locking up people who commit crimes to support drug habits often doesn't work. Something more than incarceration is needed -- treatment.The issue: Lawmakers are proposing to fund drug treatment programs for prison inmmates
Although the Legislature has been wrestling with the problem of building a new prison to relieve overcrowding, lawmakers also are talking seriously about expanding treatment programs. The Senate Ways and Means Committee has approved a bill to provide at least $7 million for drug treatment.
No one contends that $7 million is enough to do the job. State health officials estimate the need at $81 million to treat about 15,000 addicted residents -- those who are willing to undergo treatment but can't afford it. They say there are about 82,000 adults and 16,000 juveniles who need substance abuse treatment.
Within the prison population, a connection with drugs is common. Public Safety Director Ted Sakai said about 85 percent of the 4,800 prison inmates have a history of substance abuse. To deal with the problem, he said, the system has 247 intensive-care drug treatment beds and 464 short-term treatment slots for inmates.
Meanwhile, in the House, Public Safety Chairman Nestor Garcia has proposed a 1,700-bed minimum-security facility with drug treatment and rehabilitation programs, rather than a standard prison as originally envisioned. The measure, which will be considered by the full House this week, could mean a more realistic approach by the state to the related problems of drug abuse and crime.
Governor Cayetano supports drug treatment for criminal offenders. In fact, he proposed raising alcohol and tobacco taxes to pay for drug treatment, but the Senate committee deleted that provision from its bill.
Instead the bill would use 10 percent of existing liquor and tobacco taxes, estimated at $7.5 million, and 25 percent of the money expected from the state's settlement with tobacco manufacturers. This approach serves the same purpose without a tax increase.
The death of musician Bryant "Mackey" Feary Jr., who killed himself in prison a year ago, appears to have spurred legislators to take action. Feary's sister said he repeatedly committed himself to drug treatment programs but no long-term treatment was available.
REP. Garcia said Feary's suicide led him to change his mind about the way to deal with drug abuse. "More and more people are seeing it not only as a criminal justice issue but as a public health issue," Garcia said.
That change is welcome because prison alone cannot deter many abusers. They need help, which means treatment programs. Without such programs, the state will be wasting taxpayer money by merely locking up offenders.
Kosovo peacekeeping
THERE is concern in Washington about tensions in an area of Serbia on the boundary with eastern Kosovo. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, "It is very important that extremists on both sides not be allowed to disrupt the situation further." Albright also warned the Yugoslav government against intervening in the area.
An offshoot of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the rebel military force, has been training just over the boundary in Serbia, apparently trying to unite the largely Albanian population in the Presevo valley with Kosovo.
In Kosovo itself, violence between ethnic Albanians and Serbs has flared up in recent weeks. Nine Albanians died in violence following a rocket attack on a United Nations bus in which two Serbs were killed. In Mitrovica, a city divided between a Serb enclave and an ethnic Albanian community, peacekeepers have repeatedly been forced to battle demonstrators.
The continuing tensions should call attention to U.S. policy in Kosovo and Bosnia and the dangers of being caught in another quagmire.
John C. Hulsman, an analyst with the conservative Heritage Foundation, argues that the United States has borne an excessive share of the burden of the NATO operation in Kosovo. He maintains that current commitments constitute a drain that is damaging U.S. military readiness to fight in other situations.
Hulsman points out that during the NATO bombing campaign last year, U.S. aircraft flew two-thirds of the strike missions and launched nearly every precision-guided missile.
Having shouldered most of the burden for the bombing campaign, the United States should now let its allies deal with the problems of peacekeeping, Hulsman says. That makes sense, particularly in view of the fact that the United States as the lone superpower is usually called upon to lead U.N. military operations.
The Balkan operations, he writes, have tied down 10,000 American troops. Not only are the troops not available for other contingencies; they also lose their combat edge by being required to perform civilian duties.
The imbalance between the contributions of the U.S. and its allies to these efforts appears to be widening, a trend that cannot be sustained indefinitely. It will produce resentment among Americans at being called upon to contribute more than their fair shore of the peacekeeping burden and thereby spur isolationalist sentiment.
Moreover, the peacekeeping costs have resulted in cuts in weapons procurement that have damaged modernization programs. That problem cannot be ignored if the nation is to maintain its military superiority.
At least part of the answer is to turn more responsibility for peacekeeping in the Balkans over to the European allies.
Published by Liberty Newspapers Limited PartnershipRupert E. Phillips, CEO
John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
David Shapiro, Managing Editor
Diane Yukihiro Chang, Senior Editor & Editorial Page Editor
Frank Bridgewater & Michael Rovner, Assistant Managing Editors
A.A. Smyser, Contributing Editor
