Kidnap Victim Polly Klaas

* Without even reading the article, I knew the person who abducted Polly Klaas had prior kidnaping convictions. What made me so sure? Because our legal system favors the rights of the criminal over the rights of decent citizens. If the abductor had been permanently locked up after his first or even second kidnaping, Polly Klaas would now be home with her family to celebrate the holidays.

RICHARD D. RHODES

Los Angeles

* On Dec. 5, I read your article concerning the recovery of the body of 12-year-old kidnap victim Polly Klaas. Her alleged kidnaper, a man with two previous kidnaping convictions, told the police where they could find the body. Having finished the article, I was not in a receptive frame of mind to read your Column Left article of the same day, in which First Amendment authority Nat Hentoff complained about how we treat some of those kidnapers that we actually manage to keep locked up.

Hentoff does not like the fact that the prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison are kept isolated from the rest of the prison population. He thinks that they are mentally ill and are not getting enough love and understanding from society. He calls Pelican Bay “our own Devil’s Island.” I am not buying it, Mr. Hentoff. I’ve seen all the Devil’s Island movies and I’ve been to Pelican Bay. The men at Pelican Bay are hardly suffering from the infliction of cruel and unusual punishment. Furthermore, the ones being housed there are the most dangerous, violent, uncontrollable prisoners in the state. They are often prison gang members. They have all “earned” their way into Pelican Bay by virtue of their violent conduct . . . within the prison system.

I suggest that Hentoff’s real agenda is that these so-called mentally ill offenders don’t belong in prison at all. Tell it to the family of Polly Klaas.

BRIAN WOOLRIDGE

Yorba Linda

* A number of years ago kidnaping was a capital offense. When the Lindbergs’ child was kidnaped and killed, the perpetrator was executed.

Polly Klaas was apparently abducted and killed by a convicted kidnaper who was on parole.

If we are going to make any headway against crime, people like this should never be free to see the light of day, if in fact allowed to live.

I think an important first step should be to hold all those responsible for his being allowed to walk the streets liable for this crime. At the very least they should all be sued in civil court on behalf of the family for damages and malpractice. They should also be charged as accomplices to the murder and held for trial in the criminal court system.

Only when these limp-wristed wimps are accountable for the felons they release will we have a chance to again be relatively safe on our streets and in our homes.

WILLIAM G. GARNETT

Los Angeles