THE FORGOTTEN PRISON ISSUE

According to your Nov. 27 editorial on the overuse of incarceration,
"Wanted: the prison issue," it's estimated nearly half of the 2 million
inmates in the US are serving time for small-time drug possession and other
nonviolent crimes.Putting Americans with drug problems behind bars with
hardened criminals is a dangerous proposition.

According to research published in American Psychologist, about one-fourth
of those initially imprisoned for nonviolent crimes are sentenced for a
second time for committing a violent offense. Whatever else it reflects,
this pattern highlights the possibility that prison serves to transmit
violent habits and values rather than to reduce them. It's time to rethink
the failed drug war and start treating all substance abuse - legal or
otherwise - as the public health problem that it is.

Robert Sharpe The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation Washington

Thank you for addressing the crime/prison population boom in your
editorial. It is indeed mind-blowing that this issue doesn't receive more
attention. Ralph Nader was the only one I heard addressing it in the
presidential campaign. The tough-on-crime mentality, coupled with growing
for-profit corporate prisons, will turn around and bite this country if we
do not find alternatives to incarceration.

I'm embarrassed and outraged by this issue, but proud to see more and more
members of the media bringing it into public view.

Barry Green Santa Cruz, Calif.

It seems a little late to complain about the prison issue missing from the
campaign.

It is not too late to complain about the 2 million prisoners, most of whom
are serving time for harming nobody except themselves. With less than 5
percent of the world's population, the US now has over 25 percent of the
world's prisoners.

Kirk Muse Vancouver, Wash.