Starting over has too many hurdles

To the editor:

The county’s always talking about the recidivism rate with convicted felons and that the felons are costing more taxpayers money.

I’ve been incarcerated since October 2006 and I got a 40-year sentence with 10 years suspended. I will be eligible for release to house arrest on Nov. 2.

When I got sentenced in 2006 in Adams County for dealing in a Schedule II controlled substance, I cost them $58.99 per day. I am not happy with this but this what came out of the pockets of our workers.

I am to be released to house arrest at the cost of $400 a month and $25 per urine test for two to three times weekly. And then I have to find to job. This is for me to live in Adams County. I have nobody who lives there.

So now I’m forced to have my last surviving family member, Mom, find me a place, because the county I lived in all my life, the place I call home and where everything would be easier for me wants $800 a month for home detention and $60 for each urine test. That’s roughly $1,040 a month.

Where do I get the chance to start a new life?

I’m tired. I want to help the community by going to schools and shelters to be a speaker about rehabilitation. I believe that I am a changed man. I’m tired of this way of living. This is no life to have and it is heartbreaking.

Everything changed around you and you don’t see it, you don’t touch it, you don’t miss it till it’s right there in front of you and then you can’t touch it because you can’t reach it. But you know it’s there.

When is enough, enough?

Nathan Romine

Miami Correctional Facility