Thursday, December 17, 2009

Yes, there is a santa claus.....My letter made the paper!

I had totally given up on it getting printed.....

Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer says in a recent commentary that prisons cannot be seen as a burden or cost, but as an investment. Interestingly, The Bee’s own editorial on the same page bemoans the $2 billion cost of the new death row the state is trying to build.

The simple fact is that trying to execute prisoners is way more expensive than locking them up for life. I would like to hear Chief Dyer argue that we would all be dollars ahead by joining the rest of the civilized world by eliminating the death penalty.

Dyer also tries to scare Fresnans out of their wits with the threat of “career criminals” being released upon us next year. What he does not explain is that this is the result of the state providing inadequate health care to the people it chooses to incarcerate.

He needs to get real with us and either advocate higher taxes to provide mandated health care for inmates or suggest practical ways to reduce our prison population. Eliminating incarceration for marijuana possession would be a good start.

The next time the chief decides to address the people, he should lay off the scare tactics and talk to us like adults.

Jeffrey W. Eisinger

Fresno

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