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.