SENTENCING LAWS NEED RE-EXAMINATION

I do not think anyone would disagree that there are many people in
prison who deserve to be there, but let's take a look at the
situation from a reality standpoint. Sunday's editorial "Federal
prisoners and their guards" stated, "And indeed no definitive
evidence has emerged that assaults are spiking. But that's not to say
the risk isn't there. The typical inmate today is more likely to be a
violent offender with a long sentence and little to lose by attacking
his guards than the typical inmate of a decade or two ago."

There are 181,000 men and women in federal prison alone. Of this
amount, nearly 84 percent are first-time nonviolent offenders. The
so-called war on drugs has been proved repeatedly to be a complete
failure, and yet, as a people, we have allowed our government to
continue locking up people for minor drug crimes at the federal level
and to be given draconian sentences with no hope of parole, as there
is no parole for federal prisoners.

The Bureau of Prisons places guards in these prisons who it claims
are trained professionals -- when in fact they are trained to
intimidate and abuse. Violence is never acceptable, mind you, but
when was the last time you visited a federal prison? Have you ever
tried to walk into a federal prison to visit someone and been treated
as a prisoner by the guards on duty? Probably not.

The general public has stereotyped every person incarcerated as a
violent individual who undoubtedly has committed some atrocious
crime. That is not even close to the truth. As a matter of fact, the
recent statistics released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
indicated that the number of incarcerated Americans is nothing short
of staggering: 2.1 million U.S. residents -- one in every 138 --
locked up as of mid-2004.

That's nearly as many people as live in the entire Denver
metropolitan area, and, according to the U.S. Bureau of Justice
Statistics, 900 more prisoners are added weekly, even as crime rates fall.

It isn't cheap, either. Prisons cost U.S. taxpayers about $49 billion
a year. Get-tough policies from the 1980s and early 1990s, such as
mandatory drug sentences and "three-strikes" life terms, have filled
U.S. prisons and jails.

Legislators should revisit sentencing and drug laws. The public needs
to be educated about who really is incarcerated and what their
"offenses" are, not what the media paint them to be. The legislators
need to know the truth behind these sentencing practices, and the
Bureau of Prisons needs to do a better job of educating and training
its personnel. I think the public would be astonished and appalled to
learn what goes on behind prison walls.

JUDY FREYERMUTH

Executive director

Federal Prison Policy Project

Riverdale, Ga.