Government releases 6,000 inmates, just victims of drug addiction?

I remember one of the first drug cases I worked after becoming a police officer. It started out as a well-being check on a small child and when I arrived at the home, I found the child smelling like he had not had a bath in a long time and playing in a backyard covered in dirt. I asked the small boy if his dad was around and he said, "Yeah," without looking up. I asked him if he could go get him for me and he said, "I hate my dad." I asked him why he would say that and he replied, "Because he hits my mom."

I then went and knocked on the door because the small child continued to play in the dirt and would not go inside to get his father. After some time of knocking at the front door, a neighbor came up to me and told me the father had left an hour ago. I asked him who was watching the boy and he replied, "No one, that's why I called the police." I later found there was no running water in the house, and a short time later I would also find myself working a child molestation case at the same home. The little boy's older sister would be the victim, and the dad would claim he was high on drugs and did not remember anything. He is now a registered sex offender.

A couple of years ago, deputies responded to a residence where a person had reportedly shot at his girlfriend, hitting the windshield of her car. I would later meet that person again during a search warrant and find him hiding in an outbuilding full of stolen items with a loaded handgun and drugs. Looking back I am amazed no one was injured that day.

A year later, we responded to a call where the same person had again gotten mad and shot at someone in a vehicle. When we responded, we would also find small children living in a home that anyone else would have declared "un-livable." Drugs were also found during this call.

A couple of months ago deputies responded to a call where someone drove from the Jasper County area to someone else's property they did not know here in Vernon County, and getting a shovel out of their shed, attempted to cut off his own arm and legs. He managed to cut off his finger before passing out. Detectives later found the finger after canvasing the bloody crime scene. He would later tell detectives that he was high on drugs and thought God had told him to chop his limbs off.

The stories of violence could go on and on, but one thing that many of these stories have in common is that drugs were involved. Some say drug addiction is a disease, and I agree that people addicted to drugs have a very hard time staying off of them; and in many cases addicts may not want to take them, but find themselves doing so anyway. There is also a view from some that people who are addicted to drugs are victims and therefore must not be held criminally liable, but should be forced into rehab and treatment instead. I can say from my time operating a jail, I do not see many people cured of drug addiction for serving time in jail. They often go right back to it when they get out.

There needs to be a solution to help them, but at the same time we must also protect those who become victims of drug users. They may not be getting cured of drug addiction in jail, but they are also not stealing from people, assaulting people, and they are not attempting to raise their children in a house full of needles, drugs, and drug addicts.

This month the government released more than 6,000 federal inmates who were serving time for a variety of drug charges. These 6,000 are just a small portion of the 40,000+ inmates whose cases are being reviewed for early release.

Some have said they are harmless and were only victims to begin with, but I would say dealing first hand with drug users on the streets, this is very seldom the case. Along with drugs you find a wide range of other crimes. If a better solution can be found to help drug addiction I am all for it and would very much like to be part of it, but simply letting people out of federal prison because the jails are full will create only one thing, more victims in our communities. I hope they can find help, but for those who do not, I hope innocent people do not have to suffer as a result.