I made it through. I've never been to prison, and I survived...and those two victories put me well ahead of too many of my old friends.

Why am I now enjoying the sunshine when they do not? It's not that I was in any way better or stronger than most of them, but I had a family that cared, and I got lucky; and I wonder how much better our nation would be if the billions now spent on incarceration were diverted to treatment and rehabilitation?

At first glance it sounds ridiculous, but variations on this philosophy have been touted as a solution to our international drug problems for ages, and a number of countries have actually implemented programs to this effect with great results (the Netherlands and Canada).

• Cocaine addicted monkeys placed in larger and nicer cages use less cocaine.
• Cocaine addicted monkeys placed in smaller and less stimulating cages use more cocaine.

Since monkeys are a pretty good indicator of human behavior, maybe we shouldn't put people in small and sterile jail cells after we catch them using cocaine?

Jail isn't reputed as the safest place to live, but apparently, it's after getting released from prison that the death toll skyrockets. Heroin addicts that are imprisoned, but not rehabilitated, are set loose to once again take heroin. Now though, they have no tolerance, and the results are tragically predictable.