DRUG CONVICTS CROWDING PRISON

President Bush is asking for $4.66 billion from Congress to run the
federal prison system for the year 2002. Shouldn't we ask ourselves why
this money is needed? It's needed, of course, to keep up with the
exploding prison population, but one might ask why is that happening?

There are currently 154,000 inmates in the federal system; more than
half are non-violent drug offenders. This is due to the fact that we
have mandatory sentencing and no parole in the federal system. These
people are spending four to six years more than rapist and murders.

Drug czar William Bennett says, "The drug war worked once, it can work
again." He makes this statement though the drug war was a huge success
during the Reagan/Bush years, when in fact more people went to prison
under Clinton than the 12 years Reagan and Bush were in the White House.

From 1890 to 1990 we put one million people in prison, then we doubled
that in just 10 years, largely in part because of the drug war. But,
has this prison fever helped the drug problem any? No. Mr. Bennett seems
to think now that G.W. Bush is the president and Mr. Walters is the new
drug czar that the drug war will magically work for America.

The truth is, it makes no difference who is in power - we cannot
incarcerate our way out of this problem. And, as long as we keep trying
we will only keep shelling out good money after bad for an even bigger
prison system.

Mark Gentry, Goldsboro, N.C.