When will our country as a whole figure out that it serves no purpose to put nonviolent, first-time offenders in prison? Sentencing Patricia Miller to prison will not fix what she did and will serve no good ("Former director of Duluth nonprofit gets more than 2 years in prison," April 22).
With the cost of running prisons and the increasing problem of overcrowding, sentencing anyone to prison is a huge burden on taxpayers. There must be a better way to have them pay their debt to society without costing the taxpayers so much.
Would it not better serve the community to have these offenders do community work of some kind, actually giving back rather than taking even more? The Sentence to Serve program is an excellent example of how lawbreakers can pay back their debt when their crime is a first offense or is nonviolent. They are giving back rather than taking even more and very probably learning from it.
I am a huge advocate of the First Witness program, and what Miller did was awful. However, will placing her in prison fix what she did? Something must change. We can't just keep placing these types of lawbreakers into confined room-and-board situations and believe it's a good answer.
Susan Wait
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Carlton
