PREVENTION OVER PRISONS

According to the Herald ("The purpose of prisons," Aug. 29), if you
understand that jailed criminals can't commit crimes, you'll automatically
rejoice that our correctional system now holds 3 percent of the population,
a tripling since 1980. And if it triples again to 9 percent in the next 20
years? No brain-enabled person could object, right? After all, we're
preventing violent crime by jailing violent criminals.

No one disputes the necessity of jail for violent criminals, but we not
imprison large numbers of non-violent offenders and for longer sentences.
We have come to think of incarceration as the best solution for all
problems and a good thing in itself, not as a last resort for people who
can't safely be allowed on the streets -- a category that surely does not
encompass 3 percent of all Americans and 6 percent of such states as
Georgia. In fact, jail is the most expensive form of welfare, and for that
reason alone we should not be looking to pad the rolls.

- -- Andy Gaus, Boston