A No Vote for One Institution and a Yes Vote for Another One

My vote against Measure J was not against Sheriff Gates. My vote was against spending more on criminals and the havoc they wreak upon society.

My vote was for the children of California. The state spends all of $5,000 per year per child on education but can waste $25,000 per year on housing and care for a single inmate.

Frankly, I don’t care about the “plight” of the people in jail. They don’t care about the citizenry when they commit crimes and violence on us.

They should be housed in sparse quarters, probably the desert. They should know that if they want to survive, they must work to grow food and become a self-sufficient inmate system.

The public is fed up with not only the justice system, but the whole method of housing and baby-sitting the slime-balls of society. They must be made accountable.

Hopefully, the public will realize that the money spent on the criminal justice system has done no good. We are a more violent society today than ever--even though more souls waste away in cells. We must nurture and educate our young--even if it means paying children to graduate from a trade or technical school.

Schools--not jails--are the future.

R. SMITH, Newport Beach