human rights watch releases report on NY prisons

"New York State's practice of sentencing inmates to months, even years, in disciplinary segregation for drug use and possession and denying them effective drug dependence treatment constitutes cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today."

"I've had 15, 16 drug tickets. No assaults or anything like that. I've never been in a treatment program. Now I'm in the box 'til 2012. I'm a drug addict. If you know I'm a drug addict, why are you putting me in a box?"
- Peter G., prisoner at Southport Correctional Facility

so maybe we could correct these abominations AND save the economy if we stopped spending all of our money on prisons that exacerbate the consequences of drug use?

read the press release here and the report here

>>oh wait, some states are starting to get it. nytimes article here.