WHY JAIL 450,000?

Re: The Jan. 25 column by Steve Blow "These guys the victims? Oh, please."

I share Mr. Blow's disgust at the spectacle of the Connally fugitives
portraying themselves as victims. Those guys don't belong in prison; they
belong in the morgue at Huntsville; and the sooner they get there, the
better.

However, Mr. Blow's claim that there are no innocent people in prison is
total baloney. On the very same day that I read Mr. Blow's polemic, I also
happened to read the Jan. 26 National Review column by William F. Buckley,
Jr. entitled "High on Drug-Warring" (www.nationalreview.com) in which he
states that about 450,000 people are jailed in the United States every year
for nonviolent drug offenses. Mr. Buckley is certainly not a typical
bleeding-heart liberal, nor a part of any vast left-wing conspiracy, and I
believe what he says.

When is Mr. Blow planning to give us a demonstration of how he proposes to
fit 450,000 people into a recreational vehicle?

The worst thing of all is the arrogance and chutzpah of a government that
squanders time, manpower, resources and tax money in a futile jihad against
drug users, but can't even protect us against truly dangerous criminals.

If the government of Texas (and the federal government) had their priorities
straight, Officer Aubrey Hawkins would still be alive today.

JOHN WALLACE, Mico