SPITZER RIGHT ON PRISON-CALL FEES

Regarding "Spitzer ends charge on inmate collect calls" [News, April
15]: Gov. Eliot Spitzer did the right thing in ending the major ripoff
of families of those incarcerated. They were forced to pay enormous
amounts of money to telephone companies to keep them in touch with
their imprisoned loved ones.

My mother used most of her Social Security checks to pay for the
collect calls I made to her while serving a 15-to-life sentence under
the Rockefeller drug laws.

Many families of the imprisoned in New York State had to make
sacrifices to keep their families together through the use of phone
calls.

This was nothing short of a moral crime.

I just want to point out that Spitzer, who had a steamroller history
of going after white-collar crimes as attorney general, did nothing
about the telephone charges when he held that position.

Maybe this was because he was bound by law to defend the actions of
the Department of Corrections.

Whatever the case may be, he now shows commitment as governor to
correcting the wrongs in the criminal justice sector. Let's hope he
can now help reform the Rockefeller drug laws.

Anthony Papa

Editor's note: The writer is communications specialist for the Drug
Policy Alliance.

Manhattan