ATTACK ON IMPRISONMENT-FOR-DRUGS IGNORES THE GOOD IT DOES

Robert Scheer wrote that there are 400,000 people in prison because
the "government wants to save them from themselves" ( "Our failed drug
war has created a prisoner nation," Opinion Page, March 5). He backed
up this claim with misleading statistics, and completely ignored the
benefits of getting drug dealers and addicts off the streets.

Scheer tried to explain how horrible the drug war is because it
unjustly ruins people's lives by sending them to jail. He called a New
York Times article "chilling" because it reported that "young mothers
are torn from their children . . . simply for possession of the wrong
drug."

Something Scheer forgets to mention is that the 400,000 people in jail
weren't just innocent people being "saved." And people who are mothers
and drug addicts can't possibly take care of children properly and
should be separated from their children.

He also cited a statistic from 1984 that said "five black men are
behind bars for each one in a university." That is misleading because
the statistic compares African American men of all ages in prison to
the number of African American men in college.

As of 1991 there were 378,000 African American men ages 18-24 in
college, compared to 136,000 African American men of the same age
group in prison, according to a 1992 U.S. Bureau of Justice report.
Statistics show similar results in California.

Scheer also states that the drug war has done nothing but bring social
chaos. I disagree. The drug war has kept thousands of drug dealers and
addicts off the streets by throwing them in jail.

Xavier Lanier
San Francisco