Okay, kids. If you haven't already heard enough reasons to stay away from drug and alcohol abuse, let me give you one more. Leah's brother is going to begin his most recent stay in jail today for violation of parole due to drug and alcohol abuse. Regardless of what you might think of him or his actions, we all have to acknowledge that he has some serious problems and needs some serious help. Knowing that let me tell the options that the courts offered. Keep in mind that through all of this, he will have a felony drug conviction on his record making it extremely difficult for him to ever be employed again.
The courts put two options on the table: prison or rehab. Cool! He could go into rehab, kick the substance abuse habits, and become a productive member of society. Or he could just choose to serve time in prison, be released, have trouble finding a job, turn back to substance abuse, get arrested again, serve time in prison, etc., etc. Let's avoid door number two, Monty.
Oh, but for the gritty details. If he goes to prison he has to be there for 6-9 months, then he's on probation for the remainder of a 24 month sentence, and he has to pay $15/month for the entire duration. That doesn't sound like too much fun. I hear bad things happen in prison and it's not really treating the problem.
On the other hand, if he goes into rehab, he has to wait in prison for 6 months to get in, then he'll be in total lockdown (no visitors) for 9 months, then he's in a halfway house for 4 months, then he's on probation for 10 years, and he has pay $240/month for the duration of this time period. Hang on. Let me get the calculator out….that plus that…times that…carry my one…that's $33,360! Compare that to the $360 total in the first choice.
Which of these would you choose?
Even if you knew you needed rehab, which would you choose?
Is it just me, or does it seem like our justice system is trying to encourage Leah's brother to decline rehab?
Why would they do that?
Seems to me like you have to be on drugs (and actually high at the time this deal is offered) to ever choose to get help. No rational person would pay 100 times as much money and spend 6 times as long in the system just to get help.
I thought we had overcrowding in our prisons. That's probably why they'll let him out in 6 months; they don't have room for him to be in prison when all he did wrong was abuse some substances, put the public in danger, ruin his life, and stress out the rest of his family.
Most of the time, the crazy decisions that you about in the news don't seem to affect us directly, and I enjoy poking fun at the news and our government, but now that it's hitting closer to home, it's just that much more ludicrous. It seems to me that our justice system has become a lot less like justice and a lot more like a game show, but this game show is rigged.
Criminals plead their cases down so that they don't have to serve time for their crimes, and the justice system puts together deals that steers people to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the people. Don't get me wrong. I'm all about Leah's brother serving time for his crimes. I'm all about society punishing him for doing wrong. I'm not really interested in spending my tax dollars to clothe and feed him so that we can turn loose again on the streets with his only option being to turn back to substance abuse again; especially not when I know that there is a rehab program that is part of the corrections system.
Maybe I'm just naïve and the rest of you already knew that the world works this way. Maybe I just haven't lived enough to be okay with this system. Maybe I've got too much rose color in my glasses. Whatever the case, I still think this is a crazy way for our tax dollars to be spent.
1 comment:
which brother is this? I have only met one. I am much like you and didn't know that our justice system was THAT screwed up! That sounds totally craZy!!!
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