I read with great interest Megan McArdle’s June 15 syndicated column in Wednesday’s Oregonian “A better approach to rising crime and justice reform.” She outlines some very good, and most importantly, workable ideas on how the justice system could reduce crime while not resorting to more prison beds.
Clearly, the rate of low-level crimes is on a continual rise and our current system has become a revolving door due to lack of prison beds. McArdle outlines very realistic and obtainable solutions. I would hope that our current leaders will take heed and move in the right direction rather than adding to a prison system that is no more than an overcrowded training facility for repeat offenders. To add to her excellent ideas, I would encourage our prison system to offer more education and job training skills to inmates to give people a chance at a better future post prison. And we, the common people out in the world, need to stop the horrible practice of seeing the previously incarcerated as ongoing threats that need to be kept out of our neighborhoods and work forces. How can we reduce incarceration rates if we consistently put up barriers to success?
Kathleen Nelson, Corvallis
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