Conditions behind bars

Re “Packed Prisons Brace for New Crush,” April 22

I absolutely loved the response from UC Santa Cruz professor Craig Haney to the possibility of creating a tent city similar to the one used at San Quentin in 1983. His response: “It was horrible -- hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and mud everywhere. If they are considering tents again, that’s shocking.”

Those conditions sounded alarmingly similar to those experienced by our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, where they are fighting so we can maintain our freedoms. One of those freedoms is not to be comfortable and clean while you are in a state prison.

LARRY BENTLEY

Bakersfield