POOR SOLUTION

TO THE EDITOR:

The state pays about $42.50 per day to house a prison inmate. This costs
taxpayers more than $15,000 a year. My 18-year-old son, a first-time
offender convicted of selling $60 worth of marijuana, was given a five-year
sentence rather than being placed in a drug rehab program that would have
cost me, not the taxpayers, $333 a month.

If you wonder why the state is short on funding, one of the first places to
look is our judicial system. Prison is no place for an 18-year-old to get
the rehabilitation he needs, but the district attorney and the judge in my
son's case seemed to think this was the solution to his problem.

Donna Lane

City