Letters to the Editor 06-09-1999
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By -
- Jail Conditions - Jail Expansion - Textbook Fees - Nuclear Weapons - School Violence
Jail Conditions
Editor, Times-Union:This is to the lady responding to my letter about the jail conditions.
Points about jail conditions were not taken as intended -
You are right - three days is very little time to serve in jail compared to three years or 30 years. To someone who's never been there, three days feels like three months. Point was, even if there three to six months, clean sheets are out of the question.
If rehabilitation is a waste of time while being incarcerated, then what is the point of incarceration at all - just for punishment? Do you really believe convicts can return to society and not commit other crimes without rehabilitation? No way!
There are hundreds of reasons for going to jail or prison and how the person was raised at home has little or no bearing on where they end up in life. Preachers' children are in prisons and murderers' children are doing God's work today.
Bread and water might have been the case in the 19th century, but humanity has become more civilized the last 100 years - or at least some of us have. You sound like you still live in the dark ages where people were beheaded for having their own opinions.
There are far too many illiterate people in the world today, and high school completion is an important part of life. If someone wants an education, they should be allowed to get it - whether in or out of the penal system.
Child molesters get less time than car thieves. Drug dealers get less time than drunk drivers. Is this justice?
Don't be so quick to pass judgment until you've walked a mile in my shoes. In God's eyes, everyone is entitled to forgiveness - everyone, even you - makes mistakes. Some legal, some illegal.
If you were shipwrecked or stranded on a deserted island and a ship passed by but refused to throw you a lifeline because "you got yourself into that situation - suffer the consequences and find your own way back to civilization," would that make you feel good? No, it wouldn't! Sometimes all someone needs is a nudge in the right direction or an understanding ear or even a guiding hand.
Would you be the one to pass by or lend the hand?
C. Sue Delong, Leesburg
Jail Expansion
Editor, Times-Union:Oh, boy! The county is going into the motel business for only $2 million? It used to be known as the Comfort Inn before it was changed to Lake City Inn. Let's call it Comfort Inn again for our work release program.
Does the purchase include beds, pillows, sheets, blankets, etc.? These should be in good shape, for they don't do much business or they wouldn't be selling it. I think it should be bought cheaper. If we are doing this to make money, why not let work release families stay there also. Have we checked other property in town for this program? Would the old Owens grocery building with lots of ground be of any use? Mr. Robinson says he only gets good input on his idea. He should get out and meet the public for we aren't going to climb stairs to complain.
By the way, the county spends $2 million like it's going out of style and our Warsaw mayor won't spend less than $2,000 for free calls to Atwood. I wonder if he would change his mind if he had relatives living in Atwood. I know he must not have any friends living there either. If the city has any money left in any budget at the end of the year it will be spent on a new truck or anything to get rid of it. These dollars could be spent for a good cause such as Atwood free telephone for the public.
I hope I haven't made anyone mad but sometimes these politicians make me want to throw up.
Dick Kehoe, Warsaw
Textbook Fees
Editor, Times-Union:Last night, while watching the Indianapolis Channel Six news, there was a story told about a local public school not paying textbook rental fees. Obviously, schools do not fall delinquent on accounts because they choose to; it is a matter of insufficient funds. I am a prisoner, incarcerated some ten years with several remaining. During my term, I've seen great wastes and I wish to point out two they, the uninformed taxpayer, might find abhorrent.
First, approximately six months ago, the prison commissary here and, as I understand, at other facilities was "privatized." In effect, on average, items were reduced in size and increased in price by 60 percent or more. That in and of itself, isn't so awful, the terrible part is the loss to Indiana's economy. The Department of Correction sold the contract to Keefe Vending, St. Louis, Mo. Our orders for everything from soap to cookies are imported from St. Louis. In Indiana there are 17,000 incarcerated persons. Each receives a stipend of around $12/month. If you do the math, 144 (per year) times 17,000 times 5 percent sales tax ... that spells text books to me. A St. Louis business pays no Indiana sales tax.
Second, were able offenders allowed to purchase street blue jeans, the savings would amount to $20 to $30 per pair of pants not provided by the state - again - large dollars. I guess it chaps my hide to witness the repugnant bureaucracy mismanage resources that are so sorely needed elsewhere. Even if prisons are tax exempt, the revenues created for local vendors are paid out in salaries and spent largely within Indiana. A single example, Keefe Vending charges prisoners $2.94 per 6-pack of soda pop (up from $1.74 six months ago). Who out there wouldn't like a vendor's business delivering thousands of cases monthly at that price? In order to reduce crime, the key is education. Rather than worrying so much about being elected, let's get our politicians tending to business. Let's spend Indiana tax dollars on Indiana!
Jeffrey Ford, CIF/DOC Pendleton
Nuclear Weapons
Editor, Times-Union:Charlie Reese's remarks on the opinion page of Monday's paper bring back memories of my two years in Hiroshima, Japan. He speaks of Americans' discussions of things nuclear as being barely related to reality. How true this is, but hardly surprising when you realize how poorly the American people in general have been educated about nuclear weapons and power plants.
It may surprise many to learn that people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still dying from the radiation received from the first atomic bombs which were dropped 54 years ago. The radiation received three generations ago is slowly killing people of yet another generation.
Within days of the bombing of Hiroshima, American medical teams were on the ground to record the effects of the survivors. As of April of this year when I left the city, the research station was still there. It will be there for many years to come as a reminder to those who wish to be informed. Atomic weapons and their sisters, nuclear power plants, are not something you can hide from when the energy is released intentionally as in Hiroshima, or accidentally, as in Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, Russia. In Chernobyl, a vast expanse of land will be useless for many years because of radiation. Some fifteen hundred miles away in Europe people will be living in fear of new births with deformities and cancers caused by the winds that carried radiation.
Nuclear weapons are the weapons of choice for those who have them and wish to threaten those who do not. The problem is that such weapons are becoming more accessible to any country that wants to go that direction.
For many years, the United States was the only country that could hurl such a weapon halfway around the world. That was the time we should have used our moral energy to construct a system that would limit the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. We would still gain some respect if we chose the road that would lead to control rather than condemning such countries as India and Pakistan. If they wish to join the nuclear club that is their option. For us to fault them on any grounds is hypocritical as we devise more hideous weapons to stay ahead.
Charles W. Albert, Warsaw
School Violence
Editor, Times-Union:We can not stop the violence in our schools by passing laws, banning book bags or installing metal detectors. These things only address the physical side of violence, when violence is really a spiritual concern. If we fail to address the spiritual decay in our schools, I'm afraid that this will be the prayer our children will recite at night before bed.
Now I lay me down to die
I know not when I know not why
For as I go to school each day
Someone could take my life away
And the reason for such things at school
It's because there is no Golden Rule
It seems since they've taken God away
Our schools are more dangerous every day
And to those who gave this godless plight
To we who know not wrong from right
They do not go to school each day
They are safe from harm so far away
They thought that what they did was right
That's why I'm so scared tonight
For tomorrow I may have to die
I know not when
I do know why.
Jack Engler, Warsaw
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- Jail Conditions - Jail Expansion - Textbook Fees - Nuclear Weapons - School Violence
Jail Conditions
Editor, Times-Union:This is to the lady responding to my letter about the jail conditions.
Points about jail conditions were not taken as intended -
You are right - three days is very little time to serve in jail compared to three years or 30 years. To someone who's never been there, three days feels like three months. Point was, even if there three to six months, clean sheets are out of the question.
If rehabilitation is a waste of time while being incarcerated, then what is the point of incarceration at all - just for punishment? Do you really believe convicts can return to society and not commit other crimes without rehabilitation? No way!
There are hundreds of reasons for going to jail or prison and how the person was raised at home has little or no bearing on where they end up in life. Preachers' children are in prisons and murderers' children are doing God's work today.
Bread and water might have been the case in the 19th century, but humanity has become more civilized the last 100 years - or at least some of us have. You sound like you still live in the dark ages where people were beheaded for having their own opinions.
There are far too many illiterate people in the world today, and high school completion is an important part of life. If someone wants an education, they should be allowed to get it - whether in or out of the penal system.
Child molesters get less time than car thieves. Drug dealers get less time than drunk drivers. Is this justice?
Don't be so quick to pass judgment until you've walked a mile in my shoes. In God's eyes, everyone is entitled to forgiveness - everyone, even you - makes mistakes. Some legal, some illegal.
If you were shipwrecked or stranded on a deserted island and a ship passed by but refused to throw you a lifeline because "you got yourself into that situation - suffer the consequences and find your own way back to civilization," would that make you feel good? No, it wouldn't! Sometimes all someone needs is a nudge in the right direction or an understanding ear or even a guiding hand.
Would you be the one to pass by or lend the hand?
C. Sue Delong, Leesburg
Jail Expansion
Editor, Times-Union:Oh, boy! The county is going into the motel business for only $2 million? It used to be known as the Comfort Inn before it was changed to Lake City Inn. Let's call it Comfort Inn again for our work release program.
Does the purchase include beds, pillows, sheets, blankets, etc.? These should be in good shape, for they don't do much business or they wouldn't be selling it. I think it should be bought cheaper. If we are doing this to make money, why not let work release families stay there also. Have we checked other property in town for this program? Would the old Owens grocery building with lots of ground be of any use? Mr. Robinson says he only gets good input on his idea. He should get out and meet the public for we aren't going to climb stairs to complain.
By the way, the county spends $2 million like it's going out of style and our Warsaw mayor won't spend less than $2,000 for free calls to Atwood. I wonder if he would change his mind if he had relatives living in Atwood. I know he must not have any friends living there either. If the city has any money left in any budget at the end of the year it will be spent on a new truck or anything to get rid of it. These dollars could be spent for a good cause such as Atwood free telephone for the public.
I hope I haven't made anyone mad but sometimes these politicians make me want to throw up.
Dick Kehoe, Warsaw
Textbook Fees
Editor, Times-Union:Last night, while watching the Indianapolis Channel Six news, there was a story told about a local public school not paying textbook rental fees. Obviously, schools do not fall delinquent on accounts because they choose to; it is a matter of insufficient funds. I am a prisoner, incarcerated some ten years with several remaining. During my term, I've seen great wastes and I wish to point out two they, the uninformed taxpayer, might find abhorrent.
First, approximately six months ago, the prison commissary here and, as I understand, at other facilities was "privatized." In effect, on average, items were reduced in size and increased in price by 60 percent or more. That in and of itself, isn't so awful, the terrible part is the loss to Indiana's economy. The Department of Correction sold the contract to Keefe Vending, St. Louis, Mo. Our orders for everything from soap to cookies are imported from St. Louis. In Indiana there are 17,000 incarcerated persons. Each receives a stipend of around $12/month. If you do the math, 144 (per year) times 17,000 times 5 percent sales tax ... that spells text books to me. A St. Louis business pays no Indiana sales tax.
Second, were able offenders allowed to purchase street blue jeans, the savings would amount to $20 to $30 per pair of pants not provided by the state - again - large dollars. I guess it chaps my hide to witness the repugnant bureaucracy mismanage resources that are so sorely needed elsewhere. Even if prisons are tax exempt, the revenues created for local vendors are paid out in salaries and spent largely within Indiana. A single example, Keefe Vending charges prisoners $2.94 per 6-pack of soda pop (up from $1.74 six months ago). Who out there wouldn't like a vendor's business delivering thousands of cases monthly at that price? In order to reduce crime, the key is education. Rather than worrying so much about being elected, let's get our politicians tending to business. Let's spend Indiana tax dollars on Indiana!
Jeffrey Ford, CIF/DOC Pendleton
Nuclear Weapons
Editor, Times-Union:Charlie Reese's remarks on the opinion page of Monday's paper bring back memories of my two years in Hiroshima, Japan. He speaks of Americans' discussions of things nuclear as being barely related to reality. How true this is, but hardly surprising when you realize how poorly the American people in general have been educated about nuclear weapons and power plants.
It may surprise many to learn that people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still dying from the radiation received from the first atomic bombs which were dropped 54 years ago. The radiation received three generations ago is slowly killing people of yet another generation.
Within days of the bombing of Hiroshima, American medical teams were on the ground to record the effects of the survivors. As of April of this year when I left the city, the research station was still there. It will be there for many years to come as a reminder to those who wish to be informed. Atomic weapons and their sisters, nuclear power plants, are not something you can hide from when the energy is released intentionally as in Hiroshima, or accidentally, as in Three Mile Island or Chernobyl, Russia. In Chernobyl, a vast expanse of land will be useless for many years because of radiation. Some fifteen hundred miles away in Europe people will be living in fear of new births with deformities and cancers caused by the winds that carried radiation.
Nuclear weapons are the weapons of choice for those who have them and wish to threaten those who do not. The problem is that such weapons are becoming more accessible to any country that wants to go that direction.
For many years, the United States was the only country that could hurl such a weapon halfway around the world. That was the time we should have used our moral energy to construct a system that would limit the development of nuclear weapons and nuclear energy. We would still gain some respect if we chose the road that would lead to control rather than condemning such countries as India and Pakistan. If they wish to join the nuclear club that is their option. For us to fault them on any grounds is hypocritical as we devise more hideous weapons to stay ahead.
Charles W. Albert, Warsaw
School Violence
Editor, Times-Union:We can not stop the violence in our schools by passing laws, banning book bags or installing metal detectors. These things only address the physical side of violence, when violence is really a spiritual concern. If we fail to address the spiritual decay in our schools, I'm afraid that this will be the prayer our children will recite at night before bed.
Now I lay me down to die
I know not when I know not why
For as I go to school each day
Someone could take my life away
And the reason for such things at school
It's because there is no Golden Rule
It seems since they've taken God away
Our schools are more dangerous every day
And to those who gave this godless plight
To we who know not wrong from right
They do not go to school each day
They are safe from harm so far away
They thought that what they did was right
That's why I'm so scared tonight
For tomorrow I may have to die
I know not when
I do know why.
Jack Engler, Warsaw
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