Re: your Dec. 2 article, "U.S. judges to rule on prison crowding;" Karen Baxter's Dec. 4 commentary, "Brandon Hein case made for clemency from governor;" and J. Clark Kelso's Dec. 3 commentary, "Federal receiver responds to prison hospital concerns":
Three Star articles in the past week addressed prison issues -- California's "dirty little secret."
-- Three federal judges in San Francisco are about to render a decision regarding the massive overcrowding situation and its resulting problems, primarily in healthcare and overincarceration.
-- Baxter's article affected me the most, since I am deeply involved in the long overdue release of a former employee and friend. Convicted early in 1987 and incarcerated under indeterminate sentencing -- 17 years to life -- she is still in prison. Release was approved by the Board of Parole Hearings in July 2004, but that decision was reversed by the governor. At four subsequent hearings, she was repeatedly denied. How can someone be approved for release and then turned down four times?
Yes, our state legal and judiciary system has thrown away all sense of mercy, and the taxpayers of California continue to pay for hundreds of inmates who have been approved for parole, some four or six times, yet remain incarcerated.
My wife and I have written numerous support letters to the governor's office for women who have received dates from the BPH, awaiting his final action. We receive the same scripted reply. I would not count on the governor to exercise the powers of his office for clemency or commutation. It's not politically correct.
-- Kelso wins the battle regarding the arguments put forth to build a prison hospital in Ventura County. A report, "Dignity Denied," shoots down any argument that, to quote District Attorney Greg Totten, "an inmate healthcare system ... is already the most extravagant in the country." Interviews with 120 female inmates 55 and older reveal the cesspool they live in, especially for so called "medical care." Society treats animals better than prison inmates. This report makes you heartbroken and angry.
-- Bob Fitch, Thousand Oaks