Conditions at Prison Clinics

Re “Prison Clinics Called Dirty, Deadly,” April 14: Please excuse me for not being sympathetic in regard to your story on “deadly prison clinics.” As a public school teacher, I find this yet another disgusting example of our state’s misplaced priorities. San Quentin prison is not a nursing home. Nor is it a place for so-called white-collar criminals.

It is a place where we send our state’s worst criminals; in other words, those who have murdered, raped, robbed and tortured our citizens. For these prisoners and their advocates to cry about the inadequate medical care provided to them is a joke! An even bigger joke is that of the $7-billion annual prison budget, we spend $1 billion a year on inmates’ medical care while our state’s children go to unsafe, overcrowded and underfunded schools.

It is hard to shed a tear for these inmates when they receive better overall care than most of the students in my classroom.

Erin L. Diamond

Los Angeles

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Are there any other people who couldn’t care less that the prisoners are not getting the best of care? There are thousands of law-abiding citizens who cannot even get healthcare, so let’s think of them more than we do the people who have broken the law.

Ray Garnett

Santa Clarita