To the editor:

On March 18, the Lawrence Journal-World published a letter written by Chantel Guidry concerning inmate health care. Her opinion was then supported by three separate letters, two in March and one in April. I must agree with the opinion that the Douglas County Commission should not support a proposal that would charge Douglas County Jail prisoners for medical care. The desire to charge prisoners for health services is an example of our society continually developing new ways to punish the poor sectors of the population and keep them down.

If this proposal is ever passed, it will open the door to more proposals that will violate the basic rights of those deemed “criminal” by an ever more docile public. Any “reforms” made to our local “corrections” system should involve ways to actually prevent crime and not more ways to punish.

Tony Young,

Lawrence