JAIL NOT CURE FOR ADDICTS

Research supports the fact there is lower recidivism with offenders
who receive treatment for their addiction. And that incarceration,
while a deterrent, is not the total solution for someone who uses
and/or sells drugs, according to a study published in National
Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information on Jan. 8, 1998, and
also according to President Bush in an article published in your
paper on Feb. 13.

Recently, treatment centers and AP&P were informed that there is no
funding to place people in treatment centers; however, there is
funding to keep them in jail. Currently taxpayers' dollars are being
used to pay $74 per day for someone in jail plus additional $21 each
day for the very limited number who receive some substance-abuse
treatment while in jail. The cost for a day in a treatment center is
$50.

Is this prudent and wise spending of the taxpayers' dollars? Who can
propose to justify as cost effective the spending of a minimum of $74
to have someone in jail instead of $50 to have him or her in a in-
patient treatment center? Perhaps some of those taxpayers with loved
ones in jail, judges who sentence people to in-patient treatment and
other concerned citizens need to ask and demand answers to this same
question.

Patricia Mounteer Woods Cross