Use Walnut Grove for drug rehab
Mississippi Corrections Commissioner Burl Cain is right to turn the shuttered Walnut Grove state prison into a drug rehab center operated by the Mississippi Department of Corrections (MDOC).
One reason for Mississippi’s sky-high incarceration rate — one of the highest in the world — is our state’s misguided attempts to treat drug addiction with prison incarceration. Drug addicts are mentally ill and require special treatment. Their addiction precludes the risk/reward simplicity of a rational criminal mind.
Even so, there are times when some form of coercion is necessary as part of the drug rehab process. Creating coercive drug rehab centers run by MDOC is a good compromise between the blunt hammer of basic incarceration and the overly voluntary aspect of private rehab. It’s drug rehab with a stick and it could be an effective tool for drug addicts who have failed to respond to less coercive programs.
Cain also pointed out an irony. Lower income drug addicts can’t afford private rehab. MDOC drug rehab may be the only way they can get treatment. It won’t be a significant expense to MDOC because simple incarceration is still costly for the state. In other words, since taxpayers are already going to be paying the hefty cost of incarceration, why not go ahead and make a legitimate attempt at rehab.
Another Cain initiative we like is a high-security unit at the East Mississippi Correctional Facility where gang members can be isolated. This is long overdue. Until the MDOC breaks the lock-hold gangs currently have over our prison system, our citizens will continue to be plagued by violent crime and an expensively high incarceration rate.
— Wyatt Emmerich, The Northside Sun
New initiative process is critical
There is no doubt the Mississippi state legislature will address medical marijuana in the upcoming session. But the more important issue is reinstating a process by which citizens can initiate new laws when the state legislature fails to respond to the will of the citizenry.
Recall that when the medical marijuana initiative was invalidated by the state supreme court, the court invalidated the entire process, not just the medical marijuana.
As a result, Mississippi joins about half the states with no initiative process. Since the initiative process is essentially a way for the voters to supersede the state legislature, don’t look for any great sense of urgency to remedy the situation.
The medical marijuana initiative is a clear example of why we need an initiative process. Initiatives rarely pass, but an initiative process is needed as a basic check and balance when the state legislature loses touch with the people.
