INTELLIGENCER JOURNAL

Jeff Hawkes's May 1 column, "Recidivism: The point of no return" makes good points concerning the need to reduce prison population and curtail costs without compromising public safety. He quotes Rep. Katie True, who has come a long way over the years in drug policy and harm reduction sophistication, as saying "When you hear from (Beard) that 70 percent of the people in our prison population are there because of substance abuse, you have to try something different."

WATCHDOG: Instead of endorsing half-hearted incremental steps of allowing parole after serving 75% of a prison sentence in return for certain efforts, we should regulate and control marijuana as we do the two far more dangerous drugs: alcohol and nicotine. Not only would this keep otherwise law abiding citizens from arrests and sometimes incarceration, thus reducing prison costs, it would provide far more tax revenue than legalize gambling and cut the legs out from under the most profitable industry in the county: drug trafficking!