STATE PUTTING WRONG PEOPLE IN PRISON

Regarding the Feb. 22 editorial, "Get tough on crime": N.C. laws are
some of the toughest in the country. The problem is they are locking
up addicts, not criminals. Ninety percent of all crimes are alcohol-
or drug-related - either under the influence when the crime was
committed or committing the crime to get the drugs.

And the other problem is literacy. Seventy-five percent of those
arrested can't read or write. How can they get a job if they can't
fill out an application?

Common sense does not run rampant in the Department of Corrections,
especially here at Piedmont Correctional. So make up your mind: Do
you want to pay to build more prisons, or schools? You don't have
enough funds to staff the Ethan H. Shive Elementary School next year,
but it doesn't seem to be a problem staffing the prison.

You can't have your cake and eat it, too, unless you run the prison.
Dictatorship is not all bad, as long as you are the dictator.

- - Mark Bryant

Piedmont Correctional