Pre-Owned Save My Son: A Mother and a Sheriff Unite to Reclaim the Lives of Addicted Offenders (Paperback) 1568385544 9781568385549

Publishers Weekly,Wills begins this treatise on drug treatment in America by describing her astonishment that an upper-middle-class white family like hers could produce a drug-addicted child. While many readers may not share her na�vet�, she offers an instructive picture of her son Kirk's downward spiral through the criminal justice system, which made him increasingly ill-equipped to function normally. As his bewildered family tried every form of "tough love" (throwing Kirk out of their home penniless) and blind support (buying him a house, giving him money), they waited in vain for Kirk to "hit bottom" and choose recovery for himself. For his part, coauthor Carona lost his own mother to alcoholism; later on, as sheriff of Orange County, Calif., he began looking for more successful ways to treat drug-addicted prisoners. Bringing together the distinctive viewpoints of a law enforcement officer and a heartbroken mother, Carona and Wills present a dismal set of facts and figures to prove that warehousing nonviolent drug offenders in overcrowded prisons is far more prevalent than any kind of addiction treatment. Deviating from the widely accepted notion that an addict must seek help voluntarily, the authors highlight the success of "coercive" rehab facilities within prisons (sometimes offered as alternatives to prison sentences). With impressive statistics on the monetary savings of treatment over incarceration, Wills and Carona call for revamping a prison system that seems to hurt more than it helps. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved,Publishers Weekly,Publishers Weekly,Wills begins this treatise on drug treatment in America by describing her astonishment that an upper-middle-class white family like hers could produce a drug-addicted child. While many readers may not share her na�vet�, she offers an instructive picture of her son Kirk's downward spiral through the criminal justice system, which made him increasingly ill-equipped to function normally. As his bewildered family tried every form of "tough love" (throwing Kirk out of their home penniless) and blind support (buying him a house, giving him money), they waited in vain for Kirk to "hit bottom" and choose recovery for himself. For his part, coauthor Carona lost his own mother to alcoholism; later on, as sheriff of Orange County, Calif., he began looking for more successful ways to treat drug-addicted prisoners. Bringing together the distinctive viewpoints of a law enforcement officer and a heartbroken mother, Carona and Wills present a dismal set of facts and figures to prove that warehousing nonviolent drug offenders in overcrowded prisons is far more prevalent than any kind of addiction treatment. Deviating from the widely accepted notion that an addict must seek help voluntarily, the authors highlight the success of "coercive" rehab facilities within prisons (sometimes offered as alternatives to prison sentences). With impressive statistics on the monetary savings of treatment over incarceration, Wills and Carona call for revamping a prison system that seems to hurt more than it helps. (Sept.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved