To the editor:

Our prison population has far exceeded two million men, women and even children. That’s almost one out of every 150 Americans who now resides in a cage.

In a letter to the Journal-World on Oct. 31, Mary Ann Kieffer asserts that the public is not indebted to provide the current level of medical care that prisoners now receive.

I respectfully disagree with Ms. Kieffer’s assertion, especially as the current situation with prisoner medical care is atrocious and has even been condemned by human rights groups across the world. Currently, in states like Ohio, (according to prisonpolicy.org) almost 9,000 inmates are suspected of having hepatitis C, a highly communicable disease that can be fatal. Although this is the case, only 16 inmates received medical care for this disease in 2003.

In fact, according to lipmagazine.org, hepatitis now affects nearly 20-60 percent of all inmates across the country, with 75 percent of those cases being contracted within the prison walls. This means that being sent to prison is what is making these inmates ill. We cannot neglect the medical care of those who are infected because we the public put them there.

I can only hope that the kind of reading done by Ms. Kieffer that inspired her to write her letter will not also guide our county commission in future decisions about inmate health care here in Douglas County.

Dave Strano,

Lawrence