Prisoners Don’t Live by the Law of the Land

Jonathan Turley’s April 15 commentary “End Apartheid in the State Prisons” is just about the most absurd piece I have ever read. Separating prisoners who have a propensity to do violence to each other in prison is a basic and necessary aspect of daily prison operations. Turley states that “we must regain control of the prisons and compel prisoners to live according to our core values.” Hello! The reason they are in the state prison is because prisoners have no intention of living according to our core values.

Turley’s simplistic and utterly unworkable notions clearly demonstrate why law schools, as well as most of academia, are so out of touch with reality, real people and real solutions to problems.

Joseph Bonino

LAPD (Ret.)

Glendale

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If the “racial apartheid” policies in prisons are to be stopped, they need to be replaced with intervention programs that teach the basics of community building: respect for others and authentic communication. Experts have long known that any positive change within the system must come from the inmates themselves. As a volunteer teacher at Juvenile Hall, I’ve seen kids of all races enter the adult state prison system having to “ride” with their own race for protection.

For example, two kids from my class -- one Hispanic and one black -- were friends who openly clowned, laughed and participated together, yet when they were moved to County Jail, the rules changed. Although they were four cells away from each other, they could not be seen talking to one another or they would be beaten up by their own race. To forcibly mix races within cells without supportive programs will create more violence and more death, ultimately costing more from the taxpayer.

Leslie Neale

Beverly Hills

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Surely Turley is joking when he blithely suggests that California state prisoners of all races should be required to live together so that they will be better citizens upon their release. Unless he has been living on another planet, the professor must know that at the present time our prison officials can’t prevent brutal attacks and rapes even where people of the same races are housed together.

To do as the professor suggests would lead to a bloodbath of monumental proportions unless the state chose to hire hundreds of additional prison guards to enforce such a policy, something I don’t think the state wants to do under the present economic conditions.

Alvin S. Michaelson

Criminal Defense Attorney

Los Angeles