Dear Editor,
Regarding March 7’s editorial, “USA: Prison capital of the world,” I think that when asserting that, “for all the money spent on corrections today, there has yet to be a clear and convincing improvement in pubic safety,” the staff of the Campus Times should have actually cited some sort of evidence or study to back up this claim, as many experts on crime would disagree.

Had the writers of this editorial checked the United States Department of Justice’s Web site, www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/glance.htm#Crime, they would have discovered that since 1993, violent crime, property crime and firearm related crime rates have plummeted.

I agree with the article’s authors that the Three Strikes Law, combined with a lack luster approach to rehabilitation, generates some serious philosophical and pragmatic problems. However to say that there have been no convincing effects associated with our rising incarceration rates may be a little pessimistic.

John Patrick
Class of 2006