By Guff Worth
It wasn”t until I began to read about the conditions for prisoners, that so many are worried about, that I discovered that I was once treated “cruelly and inhumanely” by the government! It was called “boot camp” and later as crew of an old ship. I have absolutely no sympathy for prisoners who are imprisoned for doing something heinous when I read how their conditions as prisoners are far better than those endured as members of the armed services of the government.
As far as I am concerned, those who do something voluntarily and purposefully, that is against the law and society forfeit their rights ? period. To find that inmates enjoy better conditions than most servicemen did in the 1940s and 1950s offends me. When I find that some prisoners enjoy a better life as a prisoner than they did “outside,” I know something is wrong. Frankly, I feel the Sheriff of Arizona”s Mariposa County is on the right track. I am told that California has laws that prohibit his methods. Prison should be a place so bad and uncomfortable that a released prisoner will go out of his/her way to avoid ever going back.
Then there is the thought that “cruel and inhumane” must take some kind of imagination to apply to death row prisoners. Richard Davis, of Polly Klaas fame, recently got his (mandatory) first appeal?awarded by our legal system. It took only 12 years ? at close to $100,000 per year. And how many hundreds like him are there? If some one voluntarily and purposefully takes the life of a victim, his/her life should be automatically forfeited on conviction. Don”t mess around. Arrange a quick appeal, and if it is turned down, bang! Perhaps it would be true justice if the method of execution matched the way the prisoner had done his deed. Some will ask, “what if it turns out he/she is innocent?” I say too bad! I can live with the odds that guilt is correct. And that goes for all of those who bargain for a life sentence rather than execution. Simple. You do it, you get it!
And, yes, I feel that sex offenders with tastes for small children deserve the same.
Guff Worth
Lakeport
