PRISONER SOLUTION MUST BE LONG TERM

Your Sept. 23 editorial ("Prisons: Job loss hurts, but Delta must close")
stated that "operating a fiscally-responsible prison system is in the best
interests of Mississippi taxpayers," and that "(Mississippi Gov. Ronnie)
Musgrove and the state Department of Corrections should be good stewards of
tax dollars."

I agree that the state's "fiscally-responsible" dogs should control
prisoner/prisons growth costs because Mississippi's 85 percent -
law-fueled, tops-in-the-nation - increase in state prisoners has been a
classic case of a prisoner-growth tail wagging the state's financial dog.

Lasting "good steward" cost-control solutions, however, will require more
than the temporary closing of a private prison. They require implemented
answers to two questions:

a.. What is the maximum number of state prisoners Mississippi can
responsibly afford to incarcerate and pay for, given other education, human
services, etc., needs? b.. What change in Mississippi's laws and
corrections administration is necessary to control and maintain prisoner
population at or below the maximum number of state prisoners?

Ron Welch

Jackson