NEW JAIL

We'll Gladly Pay To Lock Up Nonviolent Offenders

Is there a trend here? Two recent items in The Gazette suggested we can
save big bucks by emptying our jails and prisons of nonviolent offenders
("Few in jail for drugs violent, study says," Sept. 20; "There are cheaper
ways to relieve overcrowded jail," Letters, Sept. 20). Great idea. Let's
release the arsonists, bookies, burglars, car thieves, check-kiters,
counterfeiters, drug dealers, drunken drivers, embezzlers, flashers,
forgers, identity stealers, perjurers, pimps, prostitutes, shoplifters,
smugglers, tax cheats, vandals and other miscreants who have been charged
with or convicted of so-called nonviolent crimes.

Nonviolent crime isn't victimless crime. And because someone has broken the
law without physically threatening or injuring their victim doesn't mean
they haven't done them violence. It's no stretch to suggest that we're all
victims of crime because crime -- and the fear of it -- coarsens and
degrades our society, causes us to barricade, arm and insure ourselves
against it, and requires us to support an expensive legal system, however
imperfect it may be.

Unfortunately, that cost is one we must pay. It may be cheaper to give
criminals touchy-feely drug rehabilitation or make them wear ankle monitors
so they can stay home and watch television, but I doubt the threat of these
measures will provide much deterrence. I feel a lot safer with them right
where they are -- behind bars.

Steve Haggart

Colorado Springs