Longer prison terms don’t work

This is in response to a letter from a high school student advocating an increase of mandatory prison time for all categories of sex offenses to 20 years.

First, increasing mandatory sentences to 20 years increases the danger to future victims. When a criminal does not expect any window of leniency to himself, he has no incentive to keep the victim alive rather than eliminate the eyewitness.

Second, increasing sentences has proven inefficient to deter crimes. Twice as high a percentage of population is incarcerated in the U.S. as in the European Union, and the crime rate in America is still higher.

Third, statistics show that recidivism in sex offenses is in fact lower than in all other crimes but murder. Also, psychologists and psychiatrists claiming that sex offenders cannot be rehabilitated cannot predict human behavior with any degree of precision, according to multiple statements by the American Psychological Association in court cases.

Fourth, multiple incentives exist to make an innocent person a pedophile, specifically a grudge, getting a fortune through a civil lawsuit, divorce and a custody battle, maintaining a lucrative sex-abuse therapy practice and seeking free unlimited (in New York) mental-health coverage through victim compensation funds for the alleged victim and family members. Testimony of one such person with an incentive is enough to send anybody to prison for pedophilia, without any physical evidence whatsoever.

Last, dramatically increasing mandatory prison sentences destroys incentives for plea bargaining, while more than 90 percent of convictions are currently obtained through pleas. Facing high mandatory sentences, all cases will be tried, bankrupting counties, so that no money is left for any social programs, including public education.

Therefore, I suggest that while teaching high school students to take a stand on important social topics, more responsible research of relevant issues should be encouraged.

Tatiana Neroni
Delhi

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Neroni is a third-year law student at Albany Law School.

The school here in the Cherry Valley-Springfield district is a mess. There is open dissension between the supervisors, the facility, the staff and the community.

There is one way only that the people can speak and know that they are heard by the school board and superintendent and that is by the disapproval of bond issues and budgets.

Thirteen years ago our school had 1,060 students. Today there are 608. Next year, the enrollment will likely be smaller. Downsizing, whether a Fortune 500 company or a small rural school, is never easy, is never painless. Human beings who are caught in a downsizing are not bad nor evil nor even unfit for the job for which they were hired, and they are hurt and unhappy. The financial gains from a downsizing take time to be felt. Taxpayers are frustrated.

We have rejected both a bond issue and a budget. We have spoken and we have been heard. The next budget vote is June 19. The difference between the budget offered and the contingency budget is a bit over one half of one percent. A yes vote June 19 would be a vote of confidence, a message to the school board that we understand their difficulties and support what they are doing to again make our school a happy place in which to work and study.

Gail Larson
East Springfield

I have just returned home after attending my son’s final concert at Unadilla Elementary. I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of the students who took part. You did a wonderful job. To Mr. Hine, musical director, thank you for your dedication to these students and their musical education. You do an unbelievable job.

Unfortunately, the entire performance was diminished by the rude behavior of some members of the audience. These students work extremely hard and deserve the undivided attention of those who come to see them perform, that includes the introduction given to each group by Mr. Hine.

Please, if you are going to attend these concerts, do so because you want to listen to the groups who are there to perform for you, not to socialize with the people around you. These kids deserve only the best of audiences.

As the parent of a band and chorus student, I know how disappointed he was to think that they didn’t have the full attention of their audience. It makes them feel as if they aren’t doing a good job and that is simply not the truth. The concert was wonderful. The audience was not.

Brenda Williams
Unadilla

The turning down of the budget by Cherry Valley-Springfield Central School district voters reflects a dissatisfaction with the current operation and finance of the school system.

To help you better understand the fiscal irresponsibility of the public education system, one must understand that the system is a government-run monopoly financed by an inequitable system of property equalization rates of towns comprising the school district. What makes this government-run monopoly even more dangerous is that it is dominated by a unionized system, which is rigidly controlled by that union.

If the school boards wants you to believe they are underfunded: Fact, 2004 public education cost $536 billion vs. $454 billion for the United States military (that includes the war in Iraq).

The public education is a bloated bureaucracy, which begs for more each year, using a "fear factor" to protect its own vested interests. The voters can learn more by doing some homework of their own. Maybe a life lesson unlearned and untaught is things can’t always go your way, rather that the wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth as exhibited by the school board along with union cronies.

Rich Pokorny
Middlefield