MANDATORY SENTENCES

What can be done to help this state with the budget? My suggestion is to
take some of these inmates in our prison system out of prison and have them
under a home monitoring system. Let there be a fee that these people should
pay on a weekly basis.

A lot of people in our prison system are first-time drug offenders who have
been sentenced to long, fixed prison terms without even a chance of
rectifying their mistake.

These laws are costing our state millions of dollars.

These people could be out here working and paying taxes instead of the
state locking them up for 15-25 years and costing the taxpayers more money
each year.

In my opinion, these first-time offenders should not have to do 85 percent
of these long sentences. Many of these offenders work while incarcerated
and do not get credit toward time served for this.

By giving them credit, it would give these inmates more ambition to try
harder instead of discouraging them.

This war on drugs is not working, and these mandatory laws for drug
offenders are not working. The jails are getting fuller every day, with
some of the prisoners having to sleep three prisoners to a two-prisoner cell.

Give these particular offenders another chance, and if they are repeat
offenders, put them back for the remainder of their mandatory sentences.
Come on, South Carolina, wake up!

Freda Robinson

Chesnee