DRUG COURT -- PEOPLE NEED TREATMENT

Drug Court is one of the best uses of funding that any county could find.

Without the court, people are sent to prison with no incentive to get
clean. The minute they are released, they go right back to the streets.

With the court, they have a good chance to get clean and stay clean.

Treatment is much less expensive than prison. At least with
treatment, there is a chance of rehabilitation; with prison, there is
absolutely no chance.

To abolish the Drug Court in the name of saving money is truly
ridiculous. The people in charge must know this. The old "lock 'em up
and throw away the key" has never worked, and we are finally realizing that.

Establishing a mental health court would accomplish much the same for
people who are in prison for no other reason than that society has
decided that our prisons should be our 21st-century mental health centers.

Addicts, alcoholics and people who suffer from mental illness all
need treatment, not prison.

PATTIE HUNT, Jacksonville