Pubdate: Wed, 24 Mar 2004
Source: Reporter, The (Fond du Lac, WI)
Copyright: 2004 Gannett Wisconsin Newspapers
Contact: 
http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/contactus/readerservices/letter_to_editor.sht
Website: http://www.wisinfo.com/thereporter/index.shtml
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2271
Author: Gini Ellens
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/rehab.htm (Treatment)

TREATMENT NEEDED FOR NON-VIOLENT OFFENDERS

State Sen. Carol Roessler, you are right on! We would like to see a 
treatment program for non-violent lawbreakers rather than jail or prison.

It is not only a costly way to deal with these people but it is a horrible 
situation to place them in.

Our son was sentenced to five years in prison for his seventh DUI. He was 
stopped due to a taillight not working. He has been moved to four different 
out-of-state prisons where some of the conditions have been really deplorable.

He is now in Appleton, Minn., and this seems a "good prison." In one 
Oklahoma prison, they took him off of his blood thinner medication and a 
few months later, he ended up in the hospital with another blood clot. A 
fellow inmate in this same prison had his medications taken away and, as a 
result, died there.

State of Wisconsin, please consider a treatment program for these 
non-violent offenders. These are people with addictions who desperately 
need help.

Gini Ellens, Brandon
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