FACING FACTS

Drug Strategies

Facing Facts

Criminal Justice Programs

Giving Youth Better Choices Than Drugs. With a staff that includes former convicts and recovering drug abusers, the Alliance of Concerned Men focuses on changing the attitudes of youth living in D.C.'s drug- and crime-infested neighborhoods. Formed in 1991 by alumni of the District's Eastern High School, the Alliance offers drug education classes, visits to drug treatment programs, job training, tutoring, life-skills sessions, workshops and child reunion for incarcerated fathers. Youth are referred to the program by community organizations, the courts, the Metropolitan Police Department and the D.C. Housing Authority. The Alliance also has a successful history of reducing gang violence, which is often related to drug sales. In 1997, the Alliance brokered a truce between gangs in the Benning Heights Public Housing neighborhood, ending a string of gang-related homicides in that area. To date, there have been no more gang-related murders in Benning Heights. With offices in the Northwest and Southeast quadrants of the District, the Alliance served up to 500 youth in 1997. For more information, call (202) 645-5097.

Preventing Abuses Among Female Inmates. At least half of all women in state prisons suffer from alcohol and other drug abuse, and up to 88 percent are victims of domestic violence and sexual or other physical abuse. The National Women's Law Center created the Women in Prison Project (WPP) in 1990 to empower women with education and legal advocacy. WPP (now run by the D.C. Prisoners Legal Services Project) helps end the cycle of drug addiction and sexual and physical abuse. In 1995, WPP published a resource guide fo rincarcerated women, followed by a 1998 manual entitled An End to Silence: A Women Prisoners' Handbook on Identifying and Addressing Sexual Misconduct. The first of its kind, the handbook informs incarcerated women across the U.S. about accessible legal services and information about inappropriate sexual conduct in prisons. To date, WPP has provided free legal counseling and advocacy to more than 1,500 women incarcerated by the District of Columbia Department of Corrections and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. For more information, call (202) 775-0323.

Making Anti-Drug Laws Hit Home. Washington lawyers do not need a courtroom to fight drug crimes. Just ask the Young Lawyers Section of the Bar Association. Based on the premise that drug dealing leads to other neighborhood crimes and lowers property values, a group of 40 volunteer attorneys formed Operation Crackdown. They work with community groups to force nuisance property owners to eliminate drug activity by evicting problem tenants, installing outdoor lighting and hiring security guards to patrol the property. Operation Crackdown also provides free legal assistance to disgruntled neighbors. During its first three years, Operation Crackdown handles 70 cases and closed 15 crack houses. Ninety-seven percent of the complaints never reached the civil courts because the treat of a lawsuit was enough to make property owners comply. Recently, Operation Crackdown attorneys helped enact an emergency bill --the Drug-Related Nuisance Abatement Act of 1998 -- that will make it easier to sue homeowners who allow drug-related activity on their properties. To learn more, call (202) 828-3643.

Mobile Counseling for Prostitutes. Every night, about 500 prostitutes work the streets of the nation's capital. Drug use is pervasive among them, and only one advocacy organization in the city addresses their needs: Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS). Every Friday and Saturday from 10:30 p.m. until 5:00 a.m., HIPS workers travel the streets in a mobile unit, dispensing condoms, coffee, cocoa and on-the-spot professional counseling. In addition to referring prostitutes to drug treatment programs and other resources, HIPS provides free HIV testing (one-fourth of Washington's prostitutes are HIV-positive), a 24-hour hotline, a drop-in center, food, clothing and legal help. Each year HIPS makes an estimated 3,000 contacts with prostitutes in the city. Since the organization's creation in August 1993, HIPS has helped some 100 teenagers escape from prostitution. A sergeant from the Metropolitan Police Department serves on the HIPS' Board of Directors to ensure cooperation between the program and law enforcement. For more information, call (202) 543-5262.

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