Odyssey House welcomes President Obama’s position that drug abuse should be treated as a public health problem; that drug policy has been too focused on arrests, incarceration, and interdiction; and that he favors demand reduction but not legalization. President Obama explained his stances on drug policy during a…
R. Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), visited the Edgecombe Residential Treatment Facility in Harlem last week. Kerlikowske met with Odyssey House officials and commissioners from the Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services (OASAS), Department of Correctional…
Today, the New York Times published an article (“To Trim Costs, States Relax Hard Line on Prisons”) on the increasing number of states relying on alternatives to incarceration as a means of cutting costs. Eventually it had to stop. The fact that hard economy reality is leading…
As Governor David Paterson moves to overhaul New York State’s Rockefeller drug laws, legislators, prosecutors, and law enforcement officials need to throw their weight behind an established treatment program that offers so much more than just an alternative to incarceration. The model is…
The Commission on Sentencing Reform issued its final report yesterday calling for major reforms of New York’s drug laws. The report includes a number of recommendations of significance to Odyssey House, given our new parolee program and resources as a community services provider. The…