Death Fences
* The state has now installed, according to your article (Sept. 27), a “death fence,” designed to electrocute would-be escapees, at one prison and plans to install them at 18 others. This type of fence, where, as Chief Deputy Warden Bobbie Lynn Reed says, “You touch the fence and you die,” is nothing new, however. For those who don’t remember, the Germans used such fences over a half-century ago in their “prisons.” Those who thought up and implemented this idea must surely be proud of the “progress” we have made since then.
GEORGE M. KORIS
Torrance
* I find it awfully odd that the Department of Corrections has the money to build an electric fence that can kill around prisons, yet our libraries are closing, our schools are in trouble and the Department of Corrections has cut back on prison programs and prisoner visiting hours.
Why does the prison system have money for a “killer fence” when so many other state, county and city agencies and departments are being slashed?
JULIE LAWSON
Tarzana
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