Dear George,

Dave Sagarin's piece on higher education in prison was a well reasoned argument for a serious re- examination of how we treat prisoners.

Of course, when a crime is committed, punishment should be sure and swift. Punishment that results in creating criminals even more dangerous to society, however, is stupid. If encouraging prisoners to study and become more suited for life after prison makes it less like that they will commit another crime, it is a no-brainer.

Anyone who thinks that a person will commit a crime, and willingly spend time in our prison system just to get an education, is saying much more about how hard it is for a disadvantaged youth to get an education than he is about how easy our prisons are.

Al Weed (electronic mail, November 27, 2003)