PRISONS ARE FULL OF INMATES ON DRUG CHARGES -- DO YOU FEEL SAFER?

Editor

Marsha Rosenbaum (Open Forum, March 24) eloquently explained the futility
of the War on Drugs nationwide. For many Californians, that war is also
brutal, resulting in the incarceration of thousands of mothers, fathers,
brothers, sisters, cousins and friends. Though the state is increasing its
funding of drug treatment programs both inside and outside prisons, the
effort is still insufficient.

Forty-four percent of the nearly 12,000 women in California state prisons
were sentenced on drug charges. Over 40,000 men in our state prisons were
sentenced on drug charges. Housing them all requires the equivalent of over
nine 5,000-bed modern megaprisons.

And, thanks to our "Three Strikes and You're Out" law, over 1,100 men and
women are serving 25-years-to-life sentences for drug charges. More than
half of them were convicted of simple possession. If that isn't brutal, I
don't know what is.

Naneen Karraker, Coordinator, Criminal Justice Consortium, Oakland