COLLECT VS. SPEND

Here's the first step Kansas legislators ought to ponder as they're faced
with yet another chapter in the endless budget-deficit saga: Quit putting
taxpaying citizens in jail for petty offenses.

Why would you continue to build blocks of new jail space for people thrown
into a cell due to a marijuana seed in their ashtray? Do you cost a person
their job, taxable income, for driving 10 mph over the speed limit too many
times? The key here is to add money to the kitty, not recklessly spend it.

Does it make sense to milk the taxpayer to the tune of $27,000 a year to
house a nonviolent offender, whose crime has no earmarkings to be a true
menace to society?

Don't throw such offenders in a cage at our expense; fine them like they've
never been fined before. Six months later, as they toil away at their jobs,
thinking about how much that pot seed cost them, perhaps rehabilitation
will be achieved.

TODD MITCHELL

Wichita