Daily Trojan
October 19, 2008

Jean Guerrero

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from the small number of history classes I’ve taken, it’s that history repeats itself. Even a superficial history book inspection reveals that “eliminating scum” is one of the more prominent themes. Indian scum, Jewish scum, Communist scum, Muslim scum. Will the repetition ever stop?

Opponents of Proposition 5, the “Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act,” don’t seem to want it to. Today, they want to purge society of the Drug Scum.

Prop 5 aims to expand treatment programs for people who commit nonviolent, usually drug-related crimes, but opponents claim it will wreak havoc in our state.

Drug offenders are scum, and as such they should be punished, not cared for. They must be weeded out of our otherwise perfect social garden. It doesn’t matter that California’s prisons are overcrowded, that it imprisons more drug offenders than any other state, or that the United States has more prisoners than any other country. All that matters is eliminating the scum.

“This is what Einstein meant when he said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. In California, it’s time to stop the insanity — and approve Proposition 5 on Nov. 4,” wrote John de Miranda in the Oct. 7 issue of the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Human beings have an innate tendency to attribute all vileness in society to one of its segments and attempt to destroy that group through words or deeds. This may have been evolutionarily beneficial millennia ago, quickening the survival-of-the-fittest process by eliminating the weaker Neanderthals. But today, it’s sheer savagery. Sure, we’re not massacring anyone. We’re not putting them in concentration camps — although one could argue that prisons are no more merciful. Murder, rape, racial segregation and other brutalities are frequent occurrences behind bars.

In the end, we’re going to look back and cringe at our ruthlessness. Do people honestly think that this time, it’s different? That this time, we won’t feel any shame because people who get caught up with drugs really are scum, and putting them behind bars really will solve all our problems — at least those pertaining to dependence and greed?

The Oct. 2 issue of the Press-Enterprise reported that although 85 percent of people in prison have a drug problem, less than 5 percent are treated for it. Prop 5 would shift the emphasis from incarceration to treatment. This emphasis on treatment would also decrease the 70 percent rate at which people repeat the same offenses in California — more than twice the country’s average.

According to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, Prop 5 would save the state more than $2.5 billion because the rehab programs it advocates are cheaper than the annual $46,000 we spend punishing each nonviolent offender in prison.

Also, instead of building new prisons to solve our massive overcrowding problems, the state could simply reduce the number of people behind bars by offering treatment to those who qualify.

The main argument against Prop 5 claims that it would allow people who abuse their children, slaughter their neighbors or commit other heinous crimes to evade prison by crying the magical excuse: “The drugs made me do it!” But this argument blatantly disregards even the most basic part of the proposition — its name. Prop 5 offers treatment eligibility to nonviolent offenders. “Eligibility” is another word opponents like to disregard. They say the proposition is a get-out-of-jail-free card for anyone who was under the influence at the time they committed a crime. But the proposition doesn’t mandate treatment over prison, it just creates the option when it’s appropriate. Ultimately, it’s the judge who decides each individual case.

Ironically, opponents of Prop 5 refer to it as the drug dealer’s Bill of Rights. Implied is the idea that drug dealers shouldn’t have rights — they’re scum, remember? Meanwhile, the highly criticized War on Drugs has long been called a war on the Bill of Rights.

James P. Gray, an Orange County Superior Court judge, wrote in the Oct. 4 issue of the Daily Pilot that because drug problems are medical, not criminal, they should be dealt with by health professionals, not police officers.

“The answer is to hold people accountable for what they do, but not for what they put into their bodies,” he wrote.

Nor for what they look like or believe in. Let’s stop repeating history — vote Yes on Prop 5.