We often read various facts, reports, political dealing and everyday stories about the good, bad and ugly in life.

With that said, I would like to comment about the movement of forensic patients off the grounds of the former Augusta Mental Health Institute. My take is thus: Apparently people’s safety and lives do not matter as much as the almighty dollar.

This certainly seems to be true in Augusta, where these patients have been moved off the state-run hospital grounds, all for the purpose of letting the federal government pay their costs of care and Social Security.

That goes to show that money means more than the community’s well-being and safety. For once, let’s put people and safety ahead of resources.

These committed patients were placed in a tightly supervised, secure hospital setting where monitoring was 24/7. Now that they have been placed off grounds away from immediate help, it puts all members of the community at risk.

I hope the administrators at River-view Psychiactric Center have a change of thought and return these patients back where they need to be and pay whatever to keep our community safe.

Debbie Sherman

Winthrop