Prison Overcrowding

* John Glionna’s two articles on death row point out a very serious problem to which there seems no satisfactory solution (“Guards on Death Row Face Escalating Dangers” and “Overcrowding Increases Tensions in State Prisons,” April 21). Death row is overcrowded, prisoners can’t be moved and guards are under attack.

Richard Dieter, director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, points out that the prisoners feel rage at being warehoused before they are executed. One can understand why Timothy McVeigh chose a quick execution over years of appeals. But the prison guards have few tools available to handle this rage.

Why should the prisoners suffer warehousing? And how can we ask guards, who serve the state, to face unreasonable dangers without leverage? While not politically correct, a single change in the law would solve the problem: Any violent death row prisoner who attacks a guard should have his execution moved to the earliest possible date. If that did not act as a deterrent to inmate violence, it would at least reduce the overcrowding in the Adjustment Center and save the taxpayers money.

DRUCILLA J. MILLS

Goleta