REHABILITATION NEEDED

To the editor:

I am writing in regard to the questionable ethics of the Colbert County
judicial system.

I am the mother of two beautiful little girls. My husband suffers from a
common disease that many of our young people suffer from today: alcohol and
drug addiction. He has been in and out of trouble with the law since he was
16 years old, when he was first introduced to alcohol.

My reason in writing this is because in the 15 years my husband has been in
and out of trouble, not once did District Attorney Gary Alverson step in
and send my husband to any kind of rehabilitation facility, boot camp or
anything to help stop his addiction from getting completely out of control.
Why would our DA not do his job and stop a young man from ruining his life?
Instead, he chose time and time again to simply slap him with thousands of
dollars worth of fines. This no doubt was to perpetuate the cycle of money
the DA and our other elected officials line their pockets with every day.

Now that my husband is a full-blown alcoholic and addict, the esteemed Mr.
Alverson has decided my husband can receive rehabilitation in prison.
Anyone with any common sense knows there is no help for alcoholism in prison. .

I have worked day and night trying to find some way to get him into a
treatment center. I finally found a six-month program that was willing to
have a place ready and waiting for him. So when my husband's probation
hearing came up on Nov. 4, I had very high hopes. My husband was denied
probation 10 days after his hearing, and no one in our family was even
told. I found out by chance when I happened to bump into my husband's
court-appointed attorney. .

I would like to personally thank the District Attourney for his lack of
kindness and compassion towards my children and myself. I hope you have a
very Merry Christmas, as mine will be spent explaining to my children why
Santa failed to bring home their Daddy.

Christy Hodge

Florence