Jail Visits

* Re “When Mothers Do the Crime, Kids Do Hard Time,” May 22:

Shawn Hubler is right on the money. I used to see the opposite of this; kids did the crime, mothers did the time. I worked a dozen years in the California Youth Authority, in Paso Robles, and most of the mothers of those boys had to drive from L.A. to visit, about 230 miles.

Most of them had old cars and little money. Few of them could make the trip more than once or twice a year. When they arrived they were frequently treated with abundant disrespect by the guards. After all, in the CYA, nothing is lower than a ward, but their families come close.

If we must lock up more people than any other state in the union, couldn’t we at least try and keep the mothers and children close enough to visit?

TOM OGREN

San Luis Obispo