Alone in a Cell Built for Eight

Once again as I read the Orange County edition of The Times, I see an article referring to the overcrowding of the jails. This time it says that approximately 20,000 people who might have been locked up were released because there was no place to put them. And, occasionally, I read other articles about Willie Ray Wisely, who is alone (with his typewriter, computer and legal assistant provided by the taxpayers) in a cell built for eight.

Somehow I can’t understand what I am reading. The jails are over crowded! Wisely is alone in a cell built for eight! Can someone please explain.

K. DUSBIBER

La Habra