AN INMATE RESPONDS

Victimizing Everyone

By the (lack of) facts from the letter writer ["Pity Them Not," Letters,
November 13], I can only conclude that you believe that because we are
criminals, whatever treatment -- even daily lashings and starvation -- we
receive is not inhumane. What does that person really know about life in TDCJ?

The writer's view fails to grasp the fact that the majority of TDCJ inmates
are here for minor drug offenses, with no direct victims involved in our
"crimes." So the argument about our victims living in lesser conditions
than our own doesn't always hold water. Sure, you could argue that drugs
victimize the whole of society, which may be true to an extent, but our
government's war on its own people -- a.k.a. the war on drugs -- does far
more damage to the fabric of society than the drugs themselves.

The claim of being an indirect crime victim because your tax dollars are
used to care for inmates doesn't make you a victim of inmates. This makes
you a victim of the biggest crime ring in the world: the U.S. government!

Inmates are human, and just like officers, there are good ones and bad
ones. We are not all murderers and rapists. Blanket statements such as
those by the writer are commonly employed by hate groups. So what do you
propose? Roadside executions of DWI and drug possession suspects? That
would save your precious tax dollars.

Or better yet, why not withhold payment of your taxes? Then, when the
government imprisons you for nonpayment, I'd like to hear your comments on
the treatment of inmates.

(I'd welcome discussion on the subject; my full address is Shannon Parker
No. 1159797, 1100 FM 655, Rosharon, Texas 77583.)

Shannon Parker

Rosharon