GET-TOUGH LAWS AREN'T WORKING

I am an inmate at Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.
Hopefully someone wants to hear an inmate's perspective on the status of
the prison system.

The entire prison system is badly out of shape due to the severe
overcrowding of state facilities. It is no wonder the S.C. Department of
Corrections is having so many problems with its budget; there are entirely
too many people to handle.

If the public would look at the crimes that inmates are sentenced for, they
would see a very large number of those crimes are drug offenses. Drug laws
and statutes have grown harsher, and drug use has steadily increased
despite that fact. My own charge was trafficking in illegal drugs, and I
received a nine-year sentence without possibility of parole. My life fell
apart in front of my eyes because of my own addictions. I flunked out of
college after three years and fell into heavy abuse that led to my arrest
and conviction.

Some would argue that this is all the more reason to have "get tough" laws,
but it just isn't working.

PETER D. REID, Broad River Correctional Institution, Columbia