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Last November, Northampton County Council elected three newcomers to Northampton County Council - Tom Dietrich, Bruce Gilbert and Barb Thierry. Called the newbies, they are probably far more conservative than your average LV resident. But each of them is willing to work. Attendance at committee hearings is up dramatically, and that may be one of the reasons why Council meetings are running more smoothly.Bruce Gilbert, Northampton County's first black Council member, is easily its most brilliant member. Soft spoken and courteous, he established himself his first night on Council, when he countered a Lamont McClure attempt to torpedo a Gracedale study. "If we do not, Mr. McClure, look to the future of our county and its expenses, I think we will have failed our county overall. We do need to look at this. We do need to plan in advance. If we fail to plan, it's quite possible that it is we who will fail."
Tom Dietrich is easily the most vocal of the three, although he listens as well. To his credit, he's making an effort to understand human services, where 3/4 of the County budget disappears down the rabbit hole.
Barb Thierry has been Council's most quiet member. Sitting between Council Prez Ron Angle and deposed Prez Ann McHale, she has sometimes been caught in the crossfire of their testy exchanges.
Last night, Barb finally opened up. She spoke about our jail population and the need for a treatment center. She was responding to Lamont McClure, who several times derided the proposed Bethlehem Township site as the "Betty Ford Treatment Center." He's also stated, when running for Council, that he's unconcerned by overpopulated jails or inmates who have to sleep on cots in a gym or hallway.
He knows that sounding tough on crime will get him votes. On the campaign trail, he promised to deliver a child exploitation unit. Sounds very impressive. After all, who likes pedophiles? But DA John Morganelli has been operating a child abuse unit since 1993.
"I'd like to add one more thing about the treatment center," Thierry suddenly said. "The people coming out of there have a lot more support than the people coming out of the general population, which is probably why they don't return so often or in such big numbers."
She pointed out that recidivism is reduced from about 67% to 20% by treatment, and that ends up saving the County money in the long run. Sixty-six cents of every County real estate tax dollar pays for the back end of crime. If that figure can be reduced, future tax increases can be avoided.
In addition to making fiscal sense, it's simply the right thing to do. How ironic that Council's two Democrats could be opposed to treatment programs like the one proposed in Bethlehem Township.
11 comments:
Treatment is needed but her figures are nonsense. Please provide the link or exact source of that information. From 67% to 20%, are you kidding me? I am sure that is news to the Courts, the DA and state and federal prison officials. Most folks who are court ordered into treatment are not rehabilitated. Most relapse and relapse quite a few times.
Now if the implication is that if you continue to put offenders in a treatment program at some point in their lives they will be rehabilitated, maybe. But there is not one legitimate study that makes that claim.
There is a drug treatment industry and those(usually former addicts) in the field who swear by those numbers but their facts have been found to be flawed.
An addict is never "cured" they are in treatment and must work through their addiction every day. Any honest addict will tell you that.
Much like the Regional Health Department, the treatment center advocates who funnel this erroneous information to uninformed and gullible but well meaning folks are doing a dis-service to the cause of treatment.
Stop the bullshit. If in fact those numbers were true the 78% of all crimes committed being drug related would have dried up with treatment centers. Has not happened and there is no solid evidence it will.
Is a treatment center a good thing, sure. The recidivism rate if we are lucky may be cut by 5 to 10%.
Let us strive to be truthful and factual and not the emotional salesmen of the drug treatment cabal.
Veritas
The recidivism rate mentioned was for the prgram at Northampton County jail, which may not have been in existence long enough for those figures to mean much. But in Pike County, it's hovered around 19% for several years. So yes, the right treatment plans will work.
Local politicians in the Lehigh Valley so often seem to take opposite stances of their stereotypical political brothers and sisters on a national level. Joe Long and McClure and his posse seem to work out of a Karl Rove/Dick Cheney playbook while this woman sounds like she's channeling Ted Kennedy. What's in a name?
She may be channeling a more libertarian approach that acknowledges the idiocy of drug prohibitions and expensive jailings. A lot of "war-on-drugs" warriors will be out of work if these kinds of programs replace the current, costly, ineffective system. Good for her.
She has been a fixture at every prison board meeting and the numbers although over a short term..so far don't lie. 19 of 92 in house grads of the six plus month program have returned to NCP for violations. Pikes numbers are similar to ours and that speaks well for treatment rather than expensive incarceration. Money talks.
As a general statement I do support these type of treatment options. As I have said before on this site it really is a shame NorCo refused to work with Lehigh County.
"Overcrowding" should be a separate issue. However, for drug crimes I support treatment approach for first time offenders. Yet for all the talk about "compassion", building a treatment facility (with work release) right across the street from Dr. Mortazavi's office is akin to an Alcoholics Annonymous across the street from a bar....a little temptation while they're on work release? Is this really the best site Mr. Stoffa could come up with, or does it have more to do with another individual's option on the parcel?
Good old Dave. Care to publish the relevant data? Are any of the other 92 in other counties prison's, in the state system? Are they currently using? Have they been treated since treatment. What are the actual time frames?
Please, stop the bullshit. Perfectly law abiding people don't have success rates like that and you claim the criminal element are at an 80% "cure" rate after six months?
Poor Thierry, another inexperienced office holder conned by those with a social agenda to sell. Let me guess Dave, you were once addicted, what was it booze, blow? Your preaching style fits the profile perfectly.
Sell it to the Army Dave, they often buy bullshit programs.
The Tock
Look knucklehead..I'm just relaying the facts here. I'm not on the county payroll and have no rooting interest except a humanitarian one. Attend a meeting and you can ask tough questions if you so wish..otherwise..sit on it!
Dave your agenda is obvious. Why would I ask a question of people committed to a specific agenda? You really can't fool everyone, some of us have had experience with "true believers". Very simple Dave just back up your claims with verifiable facts.
If you chose to ignore facts that doesn't mean they don't in actuality exist. Deny all you want and throw crap at the wall hoping some of it will somehow stick and then take credit. What is at the root of your psychosis?
Reality Dave, reality!
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