Get Tough & Smart - How to Start Winning the War on Drug Addiction

"Today's would-be reformers would do well to remember that, and to consider the possibility that the best models for productive change may not come from contemporary legislation or court decisions, but from a past that has largely disappeared from our consciousness.  Sometimes, the best road forward faces back."    -- William J. Stuntz in The Collapse of American Criminal Justice (2011)

In the midst of America's current correctional crisis, a letter written 230 years ago by George Washington has surfaced again. When Washington was building the Continental Army out of untrained soldiers, he found it necessary to increase discipline.   In 1776, Congress approved New Articles of War drafted by John Adams, with the assistance of Thomas Jefferson and the approval of Edward Rutledge and James Wilson, granting American commanders the power to impose 100 lashes, more than the 39 found insufficient by General Washington. The Founders intended to impose corporal punishment judiciously, as an example for all to see, and they knew a little would go a long way. The Founders, descendants of Puritans or slaveholders, transferred their knowledge to young, mostly white soldiers. On Feb. 3, 1781, just a few months before the Battle of Yorktown, Washington requested additional authority to impose corporal punishment:   To the President of Congress Head Quarters, New W...