I read with interest the story in the Quincy Herald Whig regarding Adams County Sheriff Brent Fischer's conversations with the Federal officials about possibly housing Federal prisoners temporarily in the Adams County Jail. It is a suggestion by the Sheriff to increase some revenue for the county.  The proposal is being contemplated by the Adams County Board.It got me to thinking that the time has come for Adams County or the City of Quincy to begin to plan for the building of a facility to house people convicted of methamphetamine use or sales.  If you open the paper you will see with a great deal of regularity people being busted  for meth use in our community.  It is beyond the epidemic level and is a serious problem for our community.

People need money and meth can be made inexpensively but sold for a high price.  With the unemployment factor mixed in it becomes a revenue maker for people who are unemployed and employed.

If you notice the arrest information on these people the ages vary from teens to people in their 60's and it is not going to go away unless the money goes away. The people get caught regularly and get convicted and off they go to an already crowded facility to "rehabilitate".  I question the rehab part of that equation.

These people are not criminals in the true sense of the word and to be placed in a prison with the "real" criminals only compounds the problem.  This is why I believe the time is now that we need to investigate the building of a Meth Rehab Facility that can house these people and also try to rehabilitate them while they are there.

It would be a facility that Judges could send people to at least to have a fair chance of "straightening out" and becoming productive in society when they are released. That will never happen if they are incarcerated with the hard core felons.

The facility would also create construction jobs and eventually employ people in the area which is a big cause of the meth problem in the first place...no job and no money. The big stumbling block is the cost. How do we pay for it?  Obviously, taxes would be the logical answer and there will be resistance to that, but if we continue to see the growth of meth use in our area it becomes more of a realistic possibility that people might consider it. Perhaps, the drug money confiscated would also go toward the building of the facility as well.

The longer we throw people into our prison system for meth use, the longer our problems with meth use will continue. The cost of fighting it just might outweigh the cost of  controlling with it. Hopefully, the powers that be will read this suggestion and at least give it a thought. If not now, hopefully soon!

 

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