JAILS ARE NOT FOR THE SICK

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, April 6, 1993                   TAG: 9304060391
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short
JAILS ARE NOT FOR THE SICK
NO ONE is willing to face the fact that our present system of incarcerating everyone who blinks is simply not practical, nor is it working.
Alcoholics and drug abusers have no business in jail unless they have committed a crime other than substance abuse. These people are ill and hooked, just as I am on cigarettes. Dealers are a different bag and should be treated accordingly.
So-called deadbeat fathers are mostly victims of ex-spouses who simply cannot pay the excessive fees some uninformed judge has deemed they pay.
For mentally ill people, I have personally heard judges say that "there simply isn't any other place to put them." Pray tell, why put them anywhere unless they have committed a crime? Why not use tax increases to build facilities to treat these people?
It's time for something different than to build, incarcerate, build again and then incarcerate more still. ALEX DERFEN ROANOKE

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB