MORE VOLUNTEER HELP NEEDED WITH INMATES

I am writing this after I read the letter on Monday, Oct. 4, concerning
monies to be spent for "finding out something that we already knew."

I certainly agree, and so does anyone else who reads the papers or listens
to the news, that most crimes are drug related in some fashion or another.
I also agree that anyone with any common sense at all knows this without
someone spending a huge amount of money to find this out.

I am with Mission Service Corp., a Christian-based volunteer group, and we
are doing what we can to help this situation. There are volunteers who go
into prisons and teach the recovery program to the inmates where it is
allowed, and these people are filling the gap left when the prison system
stopped paying counselors to teach these programs.

I am so very grateful for these people, and I think a lot more things could
be done to help this situation if people would just come to realize that
drugs and alcohol are the problem in most cases. There are lots of things
that can be done to help these people, but it will probably take help from
people who care enough to give their time to participate.

Sometimes, if concerned citizens write to officials, something can be
changed or done about it. The biggest problem is that there are so many
people who do not realize that there is a problem, but they will eventually
because the numbers speak for themselves.

The prisons are overflowing, and approximately 70,000 inmates are being let
out each year into our population. If someone does not care enough to help
these people, then they are going to go back into the system, and on it
goes. People in communities need to form support groups, and churches need
to do the same. I also agree that these people do need help.

I would love to do more than I do now, and I would love to hear from people
who are willing to do the same.

Wynonah Fogle