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Christie tells why rehab trumps jail

He once had an intern, he said, who beat addiction to become a successful lawyer.

Gov. Christie answers questions at the National Guard Armory during a town hall meeting in Vineland. The Thursday event was somewhat more subdued than other Christie town halls have been as Christie discussed his plans to send nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of prison. (Michael Ein / The Press of Atlantic City)
Gov. Christie answers questions at the National Guard Armory during a town hall meeting in Vineland. The Thursday event was somewhat more subdued than other Christie town halls have been as Christie discussed his plans to send nonviolent drug offenders to treatment instead of prison. (Michael Ein / The Press of Atlantic City)Read more
    by By Geoff Mulvihill, Associated Press, Inquirer
    Published 

VINELAND, N.J. - Gov. Christie says his plan to send more nonviolent drug offenders into treatment rather than to prison is motivated partly by the successes of smaller-scale versions of the program - including a former intern of his who he says went from being a teenage heroin addict to an accomplished lawyer.

Christie told the story Thursday at an unusually emotional and decidedly subdued edition of his statewide series of town hall meetings. His answers were so long that he had time to take only about a half-dozen questions, and two dealt with his views on drug treatment.

It would save money and turn lives around to expand the use of drug courts and make treatment mandatory for many people charged with low-level drug crimes, Christie said.

He pitched the idea in Camden last month and made it one of the main parts of his State of the State speech last week. But it hasn't gotten him nearly the same kind of attention as his headlining proposal: a plan to reduce income taxes for all taxpayers by 10 percent over three years.

At the packed National Guard Armory, the tax cut - an idea that legislative Democrats oppose - took up most of his prepared remarks. But questions centered on the drug policy, and he answered at length.

Christie told of a young man he met a dozen years ago.

At the time, Christie was also serving on the board of a drug-treatment program in Morris County.

The man, he said, was addicted to heroin and had been caught stealing from his parents and breaking into another home to support his habit.

A judge, Christie said, told him he could spend a year in treatment or a longer period in prison.

While in the program, Christie said, he earned a high school diploma. After that, he went to Rutgers University, then law school. While he was there, Christie, then the U.S. attorney for New Jersey, got him an internship at his office.

"He is a practicing lawyer who makes a good amount of money, who is paying a good amount of taxes, who is contributing to society, who is doing volunteer work," Christie said.

If he had gone to jail, he likely would not have had those opportunities, the governor said.

A woman - also a recovering addict - who works in drug and alcohol treatment asked Christie, who is famously tight with state money, about more funds for treatment. Christie said he was working on that, too.