Blogs Heroin Use in Our Culture On Fire About the Impact of Addiction and Need for Solutions In the News Maville.com French Incarcerated Youth Suicide by Hanging Reuters Most Who OD on Prescription Opiates Took Methadone Mercury News Privatize California Prisons? The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog Mercury New Congress Approves Appropriations for Second Chance Act ($108 million), Byrne ($560 million) Army Times Vets Need Drug Treatment Not Jail Washington Post New High in US Prison Numbers Washington Post US Prison Population Sets New Record Huffington Post New Medical Marijuana Policy The New York Times Huffington Post Latin America Weighs Less Punitive Path to Curb Drug Use Los Angeles Times The New York Times Decisive Action on Prison Cuts is Hards to Come By Sacramento Bee Los Angeles Times California Lawmakers Weigh Appointing Commission to Overhaul Sentencing Guidelines The Wall Street Journal  Sacramento Bee Mexico Eases Ban on Drug Possession Economist.com Treating, not punishing Disability Scoop Psychiatric Patients Stuck in Emergency Room LA Progressive California's Budget and the Prisons LA Times In Posh Santa Barbara, Deaths Go Unnoticed NY Times Mentally Ill Offenders Strain Juvenile System Utne Reader A Novel Approach: Ending Homelessness With Homes L.A. Times Backing by the California Police Chiefs' Association..Key in Getting Consensus on a Provision to Cut the Prison Population L.A. Times State Grants Early Release of Parole Violators Issue Lab Drug Decriminalization in Portugal SAMHSA News Treatment As An Alternative to Jail SAMHSA News Blacksburg’s Bridge Program Promotes Recovery From Jail to Treatment Drug Policy Alliance L.A. Times Weekly online magazine The Cheers Preventing Overdose, Saving Lives Weekly online magazine The Cheers Drug Addicts Need Treatment Not Incarceration The Daily Sound Grants Awarded to Social Justice Groups Drug Policy News Overdose Prevention Bill Advances to Assembly LA TImes Execs Earn Big Money at Drug Treatment Center Tarzana Treatment Center Comes Under LA County Scrutiny Drug Policy News New German Law: Heroin Users Can Be Prescribed Synthetic Heroin USA Today  Drug Policy News Drug Czar Targets Prescription Abuse The Daily Beast Former President of Columbia: Decriminalize Drugs in US Daily News, Los Angeles ACLU Calls Men's Central Jail a Dungeon, Seeks Closure 4/15/09 Last week, New York Governor Paterson signed the Rockefeller reform bill! The governor’s signature comes after the New York Senate voted to make significant changes to the draconian Rockefeller Drug Laws, which for 36 years have mandated harsh sentences for drug law offenses. New York residents, thank Governor Paterson for signing this reform bill into law. 3/5/09 At a Capital Hill Crime Summit, Representative Patrick Kennedy (D-RI), who has worked to increase parity in mental health funding, referred to the number of people incarcerated with mental health conditions as “an outrage.” “We have criminalized a public health emergency,” he said. “We have re-institutionalized people into the criminal justice system. In my state we spend more on adult incarceration than on adult education.” New Prison and Jail Figures Show Record Incarceration Human Rights Watch: Nations Should Reject UN Drug Policy One World South Asia Human Rights Watch Cricitizes UN Politicall Declaration on Drugs Richmond Times-Dispatch Webb Leads the Charge for Much-Needed Drug, Prison Reform Santa Barbara Independent- April 2, 2009 The System is Crazy Santa Barbara Independent - Feb. 8, 2007 The Revolving Door - Families of the Dually Diagnosed Struggle to Fix a Broken System The New York Times 1 in 100 Americans Incarcerated Pew Press Release http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_ektid35890.aspx Santa Barbara Sheriff's Blog - April 3, 2007 County Jail & Mental Health: A Delicate Balancing Act Book by Mary Beth Pfeiffer - May 2007 Crazy in America: The Hidden Tragedy of Our Criminalized Mentally Ill Book by Howard Glasser Transforming the Difficult Child Time Magazine The Wire's War on the Drug War Senator James Webb Recommends Prison Reform - March 29, 2009 Virginia Sen. Jim Webb introduces legislation to establish a blue-ribbon commission to retool the nation's prison system. Click here to liston to an NPR interview with Sen. Webb