Prison Problems

I wish to join Dr. Alfred Coodley (Letters, Jan. 16) in his plea for reversal of society’s present backslide into the custodial solution to our mounting problem of criminal behavior.

When we lose a child from the schools to the street gang, and an adult from society to the in-prison gang, we place ourselves at even greater risk and endless expenditures for chronic care facilities.

We Americans are increasingly involving ourselves in shaping health care policy and practice. It is time we did so regarding the shameful situation in our prisons.

Our prisons, like our hospitals, should serve specific populations, with emphasis on strengthening healthy ties to family, occupation, and support groups. We must move toward smaller, professionally staffed institutions, like our community-based halfway houses. We are at last finding out that chronic custodial care is the most costly of all, financially and socially.

JOSEPH ABRAHAMS MD

La Jolla