Editorial: Save lives, money, via treatment

Monday, Sept. 16, 2002 | 9:24 a.m.

For far less than it costs now to arrest and jail them, mentally ill people and alcoholics who cause public disturbances could receive treatment and perhaps return to productive lives. Public money could be saved in the short run, as jail cells are more expensive than rooms at a treatment center. And the public could gain in the long run, too, as people who successfully completed treatment would no longer be at such a high risk for causing more disturbances in the future.

We value treatment above jailing for people whose nonviolent behavior can be traced to mental illness or addictions. The view is shared by many people who see the futility of temporary fixes such as jail cells and emergency rooms. Included among the people advocating treatment are the members of a task force appointed by the Regional Planning Coalition.

After spending three years studying the problems of mental illness and alcoholism in Nevada, the task force last week proposed building a new treatment facility at Westcare, a Las Vegas nonprofit agency that runs the only detoxification center in the Las Vegas Valley. The author of the task force's report, Janelle Kraft, is the budget director for Metro Police. The report, which calculated Metro's expenses associated with jailing chronic drunks and mentally ill people, and the expenses of hospitals who receive them at emergency rooms, concluded that a treatment center could save more than $16 million a year.

The plan calls for the valley's municipalities and hospitals to share in the cost of the treatment center. We hope all who are invited to participate in this expense will give it serious consideration. It seems like a winner -- a saving of tax dollars and a saving of lives.