Editor, Times-Union: I want to speak on my friend Brad Jr.’s comment he made about meth. I’m currently serving my second prison sentence out of Kosciusko County for meth charges. The meth epidemic has clearly spun out of control in our county and all across the state. I’ve been clean for 23 months and I’ve sat back and watched meth destroy friends and family, including my own. I was released from prison in 2009 and on my way back in 2010. That’s when I realized I had a serious addiction/disease. I tried to reach out for some kind of help. They basically gave me two options: go tell on somenody, or go do 10 years in prison then we will send you to the Serenity House after you’re released.
The only way to get into the Serenity House these days is by getting a VIP pass from Rex Reed, or have someone that can pull some strings with Hoss Smith. So what it all boils down to, if you’re a meth addict in Kosciusko County and you’re trying to reach out for help, you’re not going to get it there. Steven Hearn is so busy sending people off to prison his head is spinning. His only concern is money and drug convictions. He doesn’t seem to care about this disease that’s destroying lives. There has to be something done about this issue besides prison sentence after prison sentence. All of our surrounding counties have alternative sentencing and drug courts for addicts. Kosciusko County doesn’t have any of that to offer even though we’re one of the top five most “spun out” counties around.
Maybe the state should take some of that $205 million they supposedly just “found” a few weeks back and address this problem, and not by building another prison to overpopulate with nonviolent drug addicts.
Jason Lewallen, Currently incarcerated at Miami Correctional Facility, Bunker Hill
