NOT WORTH A LIFE

TO THE EDITOR: Ben Brown ("Point of View," Dec. 11) said that keeping people
with substance abuse problems behind bars isn't the answer. He said
taxpayers will save millions of dollars due to the early prison release of
qualified inmates. He compares the treatment of drug and alcohol abusers to
diseases like diabetes, hypertension and asthma.

What amount of money is human life worth? I agree that treatment may help
some people. But can you guarantee that not one of these inmates will get
behind the wheel again in a drunken stupor?

The other day I stood before a friend in his hospital bed. I watched as
doctors prepared a device to heal his mangled fingers. I saw the pain on his
face and the anguish in the eyes of his family. All of this was caused by an
intoxicated driver. Would treatment and/or early release benefit this
drunken driver? Maybe. Would keeping him in jail ensure us that he couldn't
do this again anytime soon? Yes.

On the same day that Brown's column appeared, my friend's wife and
6-year-old daughter were listed in the obituaries courtesy of a drunken
driver. I doubt that saving the taxpayers money matters to my friend or to
his 6-year-old son who is forced to go on without his mother and twin
sister. Tyler Larson, City