To the editor:

In 2001, Sheriff Rick Trapp said this about health care at Douglas County Jail: “Most of them (inmates) don’t have any insurance, so when they are in jail, we pay for their medical services. We’re legally and ethically bound to provide them with quality medical care” (Journal-World, Dec. 24, 2001).

Now with Mr. Trapp’s proposal to institute a co-pay plan at Douglas County Jail, I have several questions for him: How is it that a plan designed to reduce visits to medical services maintains “quality medical care”? Has the budget gotten so bad that it is justified to go back on a legal and ethical duty? And finally, Mr. Trapp, aren’t sheriffs supposed to uphold legal duties?

Scott Pinkelman,

Lawrence