Friday, November 02, 2007

News of the Day, Friday, November 2, 2007

  • MO’s just bound and determined to be the leader in dealing with our prison problems. As anyone who’s been around can tell you, one of the biggest problems for successful offender reentry is the lack of a driver’s license on release, both to help transport and to identify themselves. MO’s experimenting with getting some offenders ready 6 months prior to release. The evaluation studies on this could have a real impact if they’re done well.
  • MA officials tired of heroin overdose deaths, passing out antidote kits. Man, what a time to live in.
  • CO’s gov has cut back on the growth of prison spending and upped the funding of alternatives in his latest budget, bringing cries of “ohh, the humanity, the public safety” from the usual suspects who can’t demonstrate that the bulk of what we do with prisons brings better public safety than the cheaper and thus better used alternatives. [And check out Pam Clifton’s great links at Think Outside the Cage on this, too.]
  • Interesting overview of how substance abuse treatment providers are resisting allowing “abstinence” from being the end of how we look at successful treatment. They’re trying to define what “recovery” actually means, and it’s thoughtful reading.
  • Finally, a med marijuana service has opened in MT to better implement that state’s voter-approved law. From what it sounds like, they could get Drew Carey to be their spokesperson. Bob Barker—Spay your pets. Drew Carey—Medicate with pot. Man, what a time to live in.

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