Your view: Educate prisoners

To: Editor of Sikeston Standard Democrat Newspaper

In reference to the cartoons in Monday Sept. 26, 2005, edition by Bruce Tinsley. The cartoon showed the U.S. border with the words: "Posted! Trespassers will be given free social services, jobs, in-state tuition and lots of other cool stuff.."

I am not sure which is more tragic, the fact that the cartoon is true, or that Americans that ARE citizens are denied any of those things, due to the fact that they are incarcerated. The irony being that "illegal entry" into this country is a crime, therefore it is a policy of procedural discrimination against American citizens.

It depends on what region/circuit/state a person is caught in, on how much time that person gets; or, if the "Feds" would like to pick up the charges, and put them in Federal prison where they would have to do 85 percent of any sentence they received.

The majority of prisoners were cut off from any federal funding or Pell grants in 1996. One of the main reason was corrections officers were complaining about their own children not being able to get a free education like the prisoners were. Do you cut prisoners off so they can't obtain an education?

There is very little rehabilitation in prisons. What's a person supposed to do so when they return to society, if they don't want to return to prison if they aren't allowed a chance to educate themselves? The return rate of coming back to prison is more devastating.

Americans need to stand up and do something; or keep things the way they are. I'm assuming a prisoner is the only person that's concerned on it. (It's something I have to deal with).

If people want to respond, my address is Ryan Jones #29475-044, FCI, P.O. Box 5000, Greenville, IL 62246