A new study has found that drug treatment works less than prison--and costs less.

The Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison was launched in 1990 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City after the crack cocaine epidemic deluged the court system with cases.

''It makes a phenomenal difference,'' said Joseph Califano, chairman of Columbia University's Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse. ''We do not have to throw away the key for a large number of people we thought had no chance.''

The study compared 280 program participants with 130 drug offenders who served prison terms. It found that those in the Brooklyn program were 67 percent less likely to return to prison.

Here's more from the New York Times on the Government's seizure of websites in connection Operation Pipedreams, and the arrest of internet drug paraphernalia sellers across the country a few weeks ago.

Two weeks ago, after the federal government shut down 11 Web sites that trafficked in drug paraphernalia like bongs, roach clips and cocaine spoons, the Internet addresses didn't simply disappear from cyberspace. Instead, visitors to sites like PipesForYou.com and aheadcase.com are likely to be routed to a message hosted by the Drug Enforcement Administration. "The Web site you are attempting to visit has been restrained," the message reads in part. The words are superimposed on an American flag. ....Web surfers heading to some of these sites will not be told that the domain name "cannot be found," as they would if the name was wiped off the Internet. Instead, they could end up on a D.E.A. server, where they'll see the message and the flag. That's raising concerns among some experts in Internet and civil-liberties law. Shutting down a Web site is nothing new. Commandeering the Web address is another thing altogether. Is the electronic flag announcement a cautionary message to visitors that they are being tracked?

This is a new frontier for the Government that will be challenged strenously in the courts. Civil libertarians, such as Marc Rotenberg of EPIC say,

ONCE the government takes control of a domain, Mr. Rotenberg explained, it has the ability to record personal information from all the visitors to the site. "It becomes like electronic flypaper," he said. "It can effectively continue to operate the business to attempt to entrap others in the future."

So is it an acceptable investigatory technique as the Government will claim, or a violation of the Fourth Amendment and privacy rights, as will be argued by defense lawyers? We say the latter. The U.S. Attorney misses the point by miles. She says,

"If you had someone who's walking down the street and looking in the window of a drug paraphernalia store at bongs, a police officer could stand on the corner taking pictures of everyone looking in the window," she said. "You'd have the same concerns."

The two situations are hardly similar. Internet users do not intend the public to know their personal identifying information electronically transmitted by their computers whether they want it to be or not. This is not just a screen name or email address that's being conveyed. That would be like photographing their face. This is like photographing them in their underwear. Thanks to Connecticut defense attorney Todd Bussert for the link]

What a great description of Florida's attitude towards criminal justice under the stewardship of Governor Jeb Bush:

Led by one of the nation's toughest anti-crime governors and guided by an attorney general known as "Chain Gang" Charlie Crist, Florida can hardly be considered a vacationland for criminals. The Sunshine State in recent years has resurrected the chain gang, built an additional 21 prisons and passed a law that requires prisoners to serve 85 percent of their sentences. In January, Gov. Jeb Bush called for the closing of state legal offices that represent inmates awaiting execution, a move that critics fear would speed the walk to death."

But that's not really the reason to read the article. This is:

Yet, despite Florida's unchallenged image as hard-nosed on crime, several law-enforcement agencies in the state's southern region have decided to voluntarily begin videotaping police interrogations, a process that many law-enforcement officials and prosecutors across the nation consider too costly and a barrier to their ability to solve crimes.

Proponents assert that electronic taping can only enhance justice by limiting or ending the number of wrongful convictions obtained through forced confessions or false admissions. They contend it would save tax money by reducing multimillion-dollar awards in wrongful arrest lawsuits and police misconduct cases. Likewise, there would be fewer costly court hearings to suppress confessions, they say.

Richard Ofshe, an authority on police interrogation tactics and false confessions, said the willingness of Florida police departments to embrace videotaping "might start the snowball rolling down the hill" and bring reluctant police departments everywhere into line.

Fort Lauderdale, all of Broward County and Miami, have already adopted the policy. Smaller Florida cities, like Coral Springs, are adopting the policy. False confessions and forced confessions do happen. They cause innocent people to be convicted--even sent to Death Row. Taping interrogations should be the rule everywhere. It protects police and it strengthens cases against the guilty. It's a win-win for everyone.

Via Instapundit, we find Fight Bombs, Not Bongs

Those who light pot pipes are not our enemies. They are our colleagues, neighbors, friends, and loved ones. In short, they are Americans who should be protected rather than persecuted by federal busybodies who desperately need to focus on first things. John Ashcroft, John Brown, and this country's other drug warlords should ask themselves what would be worse for America's citizens: more bong hits or more body parts.

The Chicago Tribune is two for three today in our book. They call for the videotaping of interrogations and castigate the Sheriff's office for corruption.

Instapundit tells us the Justice Department is considering making a new crime out of using encryption in or during the course of commission of a different and unrelated crime. It's a bad idea and he has all the reasons, after which he concludes, "And the more the Justice Department uses "anti-terrorism" as a slogan for grabbing more power against ordinary crimes, the more convinced a lot of people will become that the Justice Department isn't serious about terrorism at all."

UnlearnedHand reports on the drug war casualties in Thailand:

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has admitted that police might have made some "mistakes" in waging a bloody month-long war on drugs which has left more than 1,100 people dead.

and on the pace of justice in India--which is truly shocking when you consider these statisics: there is a backlog of 23.5 million cases. 73% of those incarcerated are awaiting trial or on trial, and there is only a 7%conviction rate for violent crime--in other words, 93% of those arrested are ultimately exonerated. No wonder human rights activists are alarmed. [for more, go to this Washington Post article]

It turns out that the FBI has been recruiting and protecting violent informants for years.

For decades, in cities from coast to coast, FBI agents recruited killers and crime bosses as informants and then looked the other way as they continued to commit violent crimes.

When the practice first came to light in Boston - unleashing an ongoing investigation that has already sent one agent to prison for obstruction of justice - FBI officials in Washington portrayed it as an aberration.

But AP interviews with nine former FBI agents - men with a combined 190 years of experience in more than 25 bureau offices from Texas to Chicago and from Los Angeles to Washington - indicate the practice was widespread during their years of service between the late 1950s and the 1990s.

Link via Unlearned Hand, who sagaciuosly comments,

Some of the arguments made by the agents resemble arguments made in defense of torture and other such means:

"You have to weigh the odds of whether killing one or two people is better than killing a whole planeload," said Wesley Swearingen, whose service as an agent from 1959 to 1977 included tours in Los Angeles and Chicago.

Combine an institutional willingness to look the other way with the war on terrorism (and the proposed Patriot Act II), and a dangerous stew could be brewing.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to criminally prosecute "California's top firearms official over the state's continued use of a federal databank to hunt down illegal gun users."

"The threat marks a significant escalation in the war between California law enforcement and U.S. officials over gun control and background checks. State officials said that until John Ashcroft became U.S. attorney general in 2001, California's use of the databank was not questioned."

We have to say, we don't want cops using the databank either. Guess we're siding with Ashcroft on this one.

If you wish to express your opinion on Attorney General Ashcroft's recent Operation Pipedreams busts, you may send a prewritten letter to the US Attorney General's office by visiting here.

This came in today from NORML. It has more detail than many of the news reports, so we are reprinting it in its entirety.

Justice Department Conducts Nationwide Sweep Of Glass Pipe Manufacturers, Indicts 55 On Federal Drug "Paraphernalia" Charges Those Charged Face Three Years In Prison, $250,000 Fine

Washington, DC: Federal authorities indicted 55 people and raided more than 100 homes and businesses - including the residence of actor Tommy Chong - for allegedly selling glass pipes commonly associated with marijuana smoking, the US Department of Justice announced on Monday.

The indictments and subsequent raids resulted from a pair of ongoing federal investigations dubbed "Operation Pipe Dreams" and "Operation Headhunter" targeting online sellers of glass tobacco pipes, which federal law enforcement officials allege are "primarily intended or designed to be used in ingesting, inhaling or otherwise using controlled substances."

Storefronts in California, Pennsylvania, Iowa and other states that sold pipes and similar merchandise were also raided. Members of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), US Secret Service, US Marshals Service, US Customs Service, and the US Postal Inspection Service all participated in the federal investigation.

Those indicted face a maximum three years in prison and/or a $250,000 fine per count on charges that they sold or conspired to sell various types of drug "paraphernalia." Actor Tommy Chong was not indicted, though raids were conducted on both his business (Chong's Glass) and home.

Clearly, this is going to become a pattern. First the bong sellers' websites, now a bootlegger's. Be careful where you go online--think of Sitemeter and how it discloses the ISP and timezone and other details of your visitors to you...once the "redirect to DOJ" instruction goes in, that and more information about you will become known to the Government. This is a twisted new policy--we hope the websitewoners contest it in court. It's one thing to seize an asset under the forfeiture laws--or to attempt to shut down online businesses that may be breaking a law, like paraphernalia outlets, but where does Ashcroft come off taking private property and redirecting its customer base to government agents?

The U.S. Justice Department said Wednesday it had seized a rogue Web site that offered information on bootlegged video games and movies, as the owner faces sentencing for copyright violations.

The site remained available to many Internet users hours after the announcement, but Justice Department officials said they would gain complete control as Internet traffic computers were updated to reflect its new address.

Justice said it had taken over the Web site (http://www.isonews.com) after its owner pleaded guilty to selling computer chips that would enable users to play bootleg video games on Microsoft Corp. Xbox consoles, a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act....

ISO News, which claimed up to 140,000 hits each day, does not contain illegal copies of video games, software and movies, but instead features message boards where Internet users can trade tips about such "warez."

The article mentions that the owner agreed to turnover the website, and that he pleaded guilty, avoiding trial. We don't have any inside informtion, but reading between the lines, we don't see a voluntary surrender--we see the Government demanding the turnover of the website as part of the plea bargain--no website, no deal. If that's the case, it's a "seizure" in our view--just like the seizures yesterday of the bong sellers' websites.

LA Police Chief William Bratton slammed the internal police department Rampart probe and called for an outside investigation.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California lauded Bratton's call for an outside review. Director Ramona Ripston said the ACLU has been pressing for years to get an independent investigation. ``This issue is too important to be swept under the rug,'' Ripston said. ``At stake is nothing more than the department's credibility and prospects for regaining the community's trust.''

Having a police department investigate its own misconduct makes no sense. Bratton is making the right call, and Rick Caruso, head of the Police Commission, is wisely supporting him. The LA Times has more.