Thursday, September 28, 2006

Hard v. Soft

Ben Barlyn from the NJ commission sends us notice of this fine Wall Street Journal article on the successful adoption of "soft" approaches to dealing with drug offenders. It's behind the self-defeating subscription wall, if you want to deal with that, but Ben assures us that this is the money quote:

In a counterintuitive approach, police here are trying to shut down entire drug markets, in part by giving nonviolent suspected drug dealers a second chance. Their strategy combines the "soft" pressure from families and community with the "hard" threat of aggressive, ready-to-go criminal cases. While critics say the strategy is too lenient, it has met with early success and is being tried by other communities afflicted with overt drug markets and the violence they breed.

Thanks, Ben. And the rest of you, keep those cards and letters coming in.

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