The Contra Costa Times, a local newspaper outside San Francisco, has an interested piece that looks at the strengths and minuses of addiction treatment programs versus prison or jail terms. The piece profiles 32-year-old John Delino who went in and out of jail and treatment programs until he pulled himself together. But that program is running out of funding and not everyone is sold on its merits.
On Nov. 4, California voters will decide on Proposition 5, known as the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act of 2008, which would expand and build upon Proposition 36–the one that funded Delino’s treatment– with an infusion of $385 million a year in state funding to pay for adult treatment and $65 million for youth programs. Read the article to get a better sense of the controversy around this proposition and watch video below in which Delino talks about his bouts with treatment and how he finally became sober in 2004:
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS: Have you turned to a treatment program to help a family member who was going in and out of jail? Did the program help?
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