Driver drinks his way to a cell

We know that Ohio’s prisons are already overcrowded and that the state can barely afford the $1.7 billion annual cost of running them.

But society demands protection from criminals who are a danger to innocent people, and some criminals have proven themselves unable or unwilling to respond to anything other than incarceration.

Within that context, it is clear that Trumbull County’s habitual drunken driver, Keith Urso, must be sent to prison for the longest possible time allowed by law.

Urso is the Warren man who was convicted last week of his 15th drunken driving offense. His repeated drunken driving convictions resulted in the revocation of his driver’s license dating to 1979, and yet Urso has continued to drive. He has had 31 moving violations and was involved in a 1982 accident in which he had been drinking and a woman was killed.

No respect or regard for others

Urso has shown no respect for the law and no regard for the lives of others on the road. Following his most recent arrest, a blood-alcohol test showed him with a reading of 0.286, more than 31/2 times the legal limit. His lawyer’s claim that the test was flawed was not persuasive in court and is less persuasive in the court of public opinion.

Urso faces up to 10 years in prison, and that’s what he should get. His pattern of behavior makes it clear that he places his own desire to drink and drive above the rights of everyone else on the road. Most people would have learned after a few arrests. Any decent human being would have learned after killing someone.

Urso has spent the last nine months in county jail, during which time every motorist on the road has been safe from his recklessness. Another nine years of protection from this menace isn’t too much to hope for.