Prisoners are all bad guys, right?

Prisoners. Locked up behind bars. Must be bad guys, huh? Well … not necessarily. As usual, the truth is a lot more complicated than you might assume if you just go by first impressions.

In this particular case the prisoners were in a courtroom staging area, awaiting their turn before the judge. Suddenly the guard collapsed, right in front of them, and he was the only one there, apart from the prisoners. They shouted for assistance for him, and eventually broke out of their cell to help him, risking the consequences. And in doing so, they didn’t just help him, they might have actually saved his life.

Nick Kelton, the first of the prisoners to reach the stricken guard, was a meth addict. Does the fact that he’s strayed into taking drugs make him a bad person? Asked why he did it, he said “He’s a good man … saves lives … whether he’s got a gun or a badge, if he falls down I’m gonna help him”. Hardly the response of a bad man, a hardened criminal. So, should addicts  be locked up? Maybe we should rethink the policy on drugs offenders. Maybe they need help far more than they need punishment.

Does taking drugs mean you need punishment … or help?

In some parts of the world drug use has been decriminalised, and maybe that’s the way forward. Certainly the present situation isn’t working too well, where taking drugs automatically creates criminality and costs taxpayers a fortune keeping addicts locked up. And, as everybody knows, the best way to become a better criminal is to mix with lots of criminals; that way you can learn their ways and, whether you like it or not, you’re likely to be influenced by their views. So is there a better way to deal with drug addicts?

Well, in some parts of America you can now walk into a police station and admit you’re taking drugs (or even if you’re actually high at the time), and instead of being arrested you’re more likely to be helped and guided into a drug rehabilitation program. Take a look at this video, and listen to Leonard Campanello, the Police Chief at Gloucester Police Department, MA, and hear his comment: “… there’s no way we’re ever going to arrest our way out of the addiction crisis in this country”.

Surely this is the way forward. It’s time we started seeing addicts as victims in need of help rather than as criminals. Obviously, if an addict commits a crime in order to get his or her next fix that is still a crime and has to be addressed. But if the person turns up at a police station and asks for help, then they should be treated with respect and offered as much assistance as possible to break the grip of the addiction that’s ruining their life.

It’s never too late to admit you got it wrong

Taking drugs per se doesn’t make you a bad person. And it doesn’t make you a criminal – or at least it shouldn’t. It just means you’ve made some wrong choices in life and you’ve started down a very treacherous road, one that’s headed in the direction of a disastrous ending, and one that’s very difficult to get off all by yourself.

It’s the duty of those in charge of making the laws and enforcing them to realise that drug addicts don’t need to be locked up, they need to be helped. And it’s about time it was admitted that putting people behind bars for taking drugs isn’t working, and coming to terms with the fact that it never will. It’s time to rethink our entire approach to this problem.