PAEDITORIAL, LETTERS, page 20

The article "Advocates Urge Better Conditions For Women Inmates," May 29, merely scratches the surface considering the very personal, traumatic effects women are subjected to within the artificial environment of a prison. The persecution, depersonalization, and humiliation women suffer is further compounded by the frustration of irreparable damage wreaked upon familial relations with spouses and siblings.It is good that the National Roundtable for Women in Prisons is pushing for productive programs within women's prisons and alternate sentencing as an alternative to direct incarceration. However, even the most sincere efforts will be rendered useless by prison officials. The tyranny of prison officials is infamous and inevitable to such a degree that any programs imposed upon a prison administrator's "turf" will be bombarded with ludicrously proprietary measures in order to short-step the possibilities o f actual progress. Prisons are foul, corrupt monstrosities, and to even consider prisons as harbingers of resolve is not simply "disturbing," it is cruel. Is this what the women of our country are destined for in lieu of compassion and protection? These are serious questions which deserve compassionate, correct remedies. These women are not commodities, they are our mothers, sisters, and daughters. Don Cleo Day, Corcoran, Calif.

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