Treatment prevents crime

Re “Good intentions, but ...,” editorial, Sept. 26

Your editorial on Proposition 5 is a stunning distortion of the proposed reform act. The horrors you conjure completely ignore judicial discretion written into the law. The judge still has the final word, and if he feels the individual poses any threat, the defendant gets locked up.

You suggest that we skip Proposition 5 and wait for something better. We’ve been waiting for prison and parole reform for decades, and our prisons are now at 170% capacity. So we have to steal billions from education to build more prisons.

Proposition 5 will safely expand access to treatment so we can break the cycle of addiction and crime. Drug treatment is crime prevention. That’s why Proposition 5 will make us all safer.

Mike Gray

Los Angeles

The writer is chairman of Common Sense for Drug Policy.