You know the immediate instinct is when stuff like this happens is to say "throw the book at him and send him to jail", and I have to say it was my initial thought, AND it made me feel good to think he'd be rotting away in a jail cell.
But here's the thing. While putting him away for a long time might make US feel better about a tragic event. Would it be justice. Some may think so, perhaps most would. But the question is how would society be bettered.
Herre is what I think would be a better sentence:
1. He spends a year in a secure mental health facility to clean up and work on his illness.
2. When he's released he spend a year in a minimum security lock up because bad decisions have to have concequences.
3. Upon release from prison he is sent to a halfway house for another 3 years where his required to work community service, and not just cleaning highways. No, it should be a job where he has to work in a hospital, or rehab clinic working with victims of auto crashes. Or perhaps a hospice. Places where he can see up close the consequences of bad decisions/
4. And then of course he needs to be responsible for any and all medical bills of the victims of the crash, AND the preverbal pain and suffering. I know he will never be able to pay that kind of cost, bit his family, fortunately, can. They supported him while he was drinking, they can support him now.
So after 5 years of supervised life, it is more likely that Reid can fully reenter society and be a contributing citizen. One who is healthy and with more empathy and understanding of himself and those around him.
It is seay to want punishment for those who transgress societal laws. But the fact is that 9$+% of those who go to prison WILL get out, and IMHO we do a piss poor job of preparing them to succeed once they eventually leave. We we as a society decided to move from rehabilitation to mass incarceration, all we have gotten from the effort are released prisoners who are angrier going out than they were going in, and more likely to be better criminals coming out than they were coming in.
Yeah I know that this is an oversimplified analysis, and there ARE people who should be put away forever. l; Amd there ARE rehabilitation programs that do good work. But too often we take the easy road, and in ends up costing us a LOT more in the end.