A No Vote for One Institution and a Yes Vote for Another One

The proponents of the tax to build a new jail in Orange County failed to realize some facts of life. A “one-issue” ballot never receives a large voter turnout. It usually angers the taxpayer because it’s a waste of their money. “Warehousing” criminals, violent or not, has failed.

A majority of the criminals return to crime as soon as they are paroled. Their debts to society are never repaid. Their time would be better spent working to build fire breaks in our forests and replanting trees.

If society feels we must still provide more prisons (at $20,000 per criminal per year), a more prudent solution might be to utilize the military bases now being deactivated.

Finally, it’s possible that the few voters who turned out to vote down the sales tax might just have been concerned about the new hike in sales taxes being considered in Sacramento.

MARV LANDFIELD, Mission Viejo