Missing Facts on Prototypes

In her zeal to belittle neighborhood concerns about the Prototypes “recovery” house, Aurora Mackey abandons all pretense of journalistic integrity (“Domestic Battle,” Ventura County Life, July 23). While carefully structuring the article to imply that the Prototypes program is geared to recovering alcoholics, she fails to inform readers that in fact the home is also for recovering drug addicts, including convicted criminals ordered by the court to participate in a drug recovery program. Similarly, she neglects to mention that the “four bedroom house” intended to lodge 14 people, including six pregnant women and six children, is a scant 1,800 square feet. The county, moreover, admits the house is not up to code.

Perhaps most astounding is Mackey’s seeming approval of the county’s stance that it properly chose not to inform the neighborhood of the proposed drug recovery program because such notification may not have placated the neighborhood in any case. Am I to assume that The Times endorses the position that the government may withhold information from the public to avoid criticism of its planned actions?

As was explicitly stated at the community’s meeting with Prototypes and the county, the Terry Drive neighborhood acknowledges that we must all play our part in addressing the rampant drug problem in this country. We do not believe it is unreasonable, however, to ask that our concerns about the safety of the neighborhood--and that of the residents of the proposed recovery house--be fully addressed before welcoming a program placing transitory groups of convicted drug addicts (and their visitors) into a quiet community of retirees and young families.

SUSAN GOODKIN, Ventura