PRISON MANDATE

So Gary Maynard has been endorsed by a Senate committee to run the
Department of Corrections. Your article did not mention anything about his
mandate from Gov. Hodges in regard to running this department or what his
plans are. I sincerely hope his mandate and his plans are to help make our
prisons correctional and not just places for people to be punished. For too
long political and some religious leaders have given up the idea that
prisons exist primarily to seek to reform and rehabilitate our fellow
residents convicted of crime so they can return as productive members of
society. Instead, the goal has been, as some have clearly stated, to make
prisons so dehumanizing that no one would want to return to them. They must
not believe this works because they are the same people who want to make it
impossible for people to get out of prisons. Sen. Patterson urged Mr.
Maynard to allow prisoners to "hug" their loved ones when they are visited
by them. Society needs to "hug" them, to show our concern for them by
reinstating educational, religious and other programs that help build up
their self-esteem that they will need in society and in fact they need in
prison.

Rev. Msgr. Thomas R. Duffy
Garden City