DRUG OFFENDERS TAKING UP SPACE IN IOWA PRISONS

In their Jan. 17 essay, "Community-Based Help, Not More Prisons," Bruce
Graves and John Shors noted that the Iowa State Bar Association
"recommended expansion and improvement of Iowa's community-corrections
programs as a more effective means of dealing with non-violent, drug-
addicted offenders and alleviating the demand for more prison beds."

They also revealed that 60 percent of prisoners at the Oakdale Correctional
Facility have committed drug-related offenses.

If 60 percent holds for the rest of Iowa's correctional facilities, then to
decriminalize drugs (still illegal but no penalty for use or possession) as
an alternate solution would result in more than 60 percent of our prison
space being freed so we don't need to build more prisons, 60 percent of the
criminal-justice system (judges, courtrooms, social workers, police) being
free to do their intended work with victim crimes, our civil rights being
preserved and more people being productive citizens instead of incarcerated.

Frank P. Belcastro

Dubuque.