LETTERS: MANDATORY SENTENCES ARE UNFAIR

To the editor:

I would just like to say that I think Missouri never really thought out its requirement to make a felon serve 85 percent of his sentence. This really doesn't do anything by cost the taxpayers millions upon millions of dollars. In the process, it hurts every member of the offender's family, not to mention it gives no incentive to the offender to be sorry for what he did or to get any rehabilitation.

I am an offender serving a 15-year sentence for a very large possession of drugs. I learned my lesson a long time ago, but the state won't let me out of here because of the sentence I received, even though I am a first-time offender.

I have three children and a wife who miss me very much, and they know that I'll never touch any drug or a drop of booze again. But it doesn't matter. Since I've been locked up, I've seen these prisons just get fuller and fuller. Every time a new prison is built, it's already full. Missouri can build all the prisons in the world, but that won't solve anything it says it's trying to.

With this 85 percent law in effect, Missouri might as well put a big fence around Missouri and burn all the taxpayers' money.

Just because a person make a stupid mistake, he shouldn't be locked away with the key thrown away. People do change, and everyone deserves a second chance. Even if the state would turn loose nonviolent offenders once they've learned their lesson, it's a start. As it is now, people of Missouri look really stupid, close-minded and unfair.

If there is anyone out there who really cares, please write your state legislator and let him know that you're tired of paying for unnecessary housing of offenders who need to be out of prison to support themselves.

MYRON TODD

Missouri Eastern Correctional Center

Pacific, Mo.