The Harm of ‘Get Tough’ Policies

The Supreme Court's ruling on federal cocaine sentences could be a turning point—toward justice and righting an old wrong.

By Ellis Cose | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Dec 13, 2007 | Updated: 2:47  p.m. ET Dec 13, 2007

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  • Posted By: JaredSeth @ 12/27/2007 3:33:26 PM

    As someone who worked in the drug rehabilitation community for a long time, prison time did almost no good for drug addicts, and the trauma it caused and the disruption to the employment history did a great deal of harm. We have one less racist opprssive law on the books now and it is a small step in the right direction

  • Posted By: wcwjarhead @ 12/18/2007 3:11:22 PM

    Legalize the drugs and collect the taxes and most of the crime goes away also,.

  • Posted By: wcwjarhead @ 12/18/2007 3:10:23 PM

    Legalize drugs and tax them will get rid of most of the crime also and gain revenue

  • Posted By: nawawimohamad @ 12/18/2007 1:56:41 AM

    Stop the drug supply. No drugs, no drug addicts. Rehabilitation has never been effective. Heavy penalties have never been effective. It is not about poverty because those who are rich also use drugs. In short everybody uses drug, simply because it is available.

    There is a lot of corruption in the drug business. What are the drug enforcement people doing, all these years.

  • Posted By: yuwipi @ 12/16/2007 3:57:13 PM

    Its about time, Now If the focuss would return to rehabilitation verses lengthy prison terms I would see our country as becoming more sophisticated. We seem to have become such a punitive society and have thrown away many people that could, with a bit of focused effort become productive members of society. I do support the idea that the local judges are in a better position to assess the need for and the length of incarceration. but if you look at the many years we have attempted to deal with drug use by imposing heavy penalties it does not appear that progress has been made. I also think that our inability to provide opportunities for people to make an adequte living, to reduce poverty, to keep the extreme rich from exploiting the masses, and reduce the gap between poor, median and high income groups we may start to have some impact on the drug issues in america.

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