CROWDED PRISONS STALL DRUG ARRESTS

Drug users have been arrested.  Now what?

This letter is in response to the article ( "Drug users target of initiative," Feb 25 ).  I am an Administration of Justice major at Mississippi College and currently studying the correctional system.

One of the things my extraordinary professor has instilled in our minds is this: The correctional system is profusely overcrowded.

My question is: Where are we going to put these 165 or so people who were arrested?

We do not have the facilities to house all of the drug users of the world.  This so called "Operation Clean Sweep" has a good initial plan, but how do officials plan to follow through with it?

There are only four ways to deal with the problem of overcrowding.  We can build more prisons, but the budget is strapped.  We can let some out on parole and have more criminals on the streets.  Better yet, we can let the 165 arrested plea bargain their ways out of jail, or simply give them probation.

Either way, the criminals are back on the streets and the circle starts all over again.

I would like to know how the drug problem is going to be solved if the users are returned to society with as little as a slap on the wrist.  I respect all law enforcement for trying to "clean up" things, and I appreciate their efforts.  I just want to know why the public only hears one side of the story.

Amanda M.  Huckaby

Clinton