PUNISHMENT FAR EXCEEDS ALLEN RICHARDSON'S CRIME

It is a strange sort of justice that a U.S. court has meted out to Allen
Richardson.

The 59-year-old is stuck in a maximum-security prison, allowed no reading
material or outdoor exercise, strip-searched before and after seeing
visitors and locked up 22 hours a day for a crime committed three decades
ago. All of that might be fine if he were a hardened offender, a murderer,a
rapist or a child abuser.

But he's not. Until a few months ago, Mr. Richardson was a hard-working
technician at the University of B.C.'s TRIUMF laboratory. So valued is Mr.
Richardson that TRIUMF is holding his job open until his return.

At 19, Mr. Richardson was convicted of selling $20 worth of LSD. On the
verge of being transferred to the infamous Attica prison shortly after 43
people had died in a riot, he escaped and came to Canada.

All these years later, Mr. Richardson wanted to make amends, so he turned
himself in. Had he not, he would still be at home in West Vancouver with
his wife, Amalia, still working and paying taxes, still volunteering at the
SPCA shelter. And that's exactly where he should be.

If Mr. Richardson were caught now selling such a small amoubt of LSD, he
would receive a suspended sentence. He has proven himself not only
rehabilitated, but a productive, valued member of our community. If
rehabilitation is one of the goals of incarceration, then surely New York's
state parole board must allow him to come home as soon as it hears his
case. And it should be heard soon.