To the Editor:
Re “Living Slow Deaths Behind Bars,” by Barbara Hanson Treen (guest essay, March 4):
Ms. Treen’s excellent essay raises a number of important issues, to which I’d like to add one more: prison education. If more incarcerated individuals were able to receive more education while behind bars, recidivism rates would almost certainly drop, and, eventually, the average age of the prison population would, too.
If more incarcerated men and women acquired at least some college credits while imprisoned, they would become, among other things, better candidates for earlier parole. Ms. Treen notes that parole boards typically “consider the transformation” applicants have undergone and, specifically, whether they have been able to “investigate and transform their thinking and behavior and to work toward repairing harm.”
Certainly, education is an enormously important vehicle for self-transformation. And there are currently nonprofit organizations — like Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison and the Bard Prison Initiative — that have been working heroically toward this goal.
But where is the state funding for such worthy initiatives? With more support from New York State, organizations like Hudson Link and the B.P.I. would exponentially increase the good they do. And we taxpayers would be making a valuable investment in our state’s human infrastructure — and, indeed, in our own humanity.
Aaron Schneider
New York
The writer, a retired Barnard College English professor and dean, teaches expository writing through Hudson Link at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining, N.Y.
To the Editor:
As a former New York State parole commissioner myself, I found this guest essay painfully resonant. The reality is that parole release decisions are still driven, in large part, by a culture of vengeance left over from the “war on crime” era.
One man I released, Jose Saldaña, was 67. During his 38 years in prison, he and other incarcerated men had created some of the most effective anti-violence and victim awareness programs that are still transforming attitudes and behaviors behind bars and in the community today.
Now Mr. Saldaña is the executive director of the Release Aging People in Prison/RAPP Campaign, a widely respected organization helping other older adults attain release and successfully re-enter society. Sadly, I believe that if I had not been on the parole board, he would still be in prison. After all, he had been denied parole several times before, all because of the one thing he couldn’t change, the nature of his crimes.
Passing the Fair and Timely Parole Act and the Elder Parole Act in New York State won’t fix everything, but it would help make this system more fair, ensuring that all have a chance to make their case for freedom based on who they are today and whether they can return home without violating the law.
It sounds simple — because it is.
Carol Shapiro
New York
The writer was a New York State parole commissioner from 2017 to 2019.
To the Editor:
I have worked as an artist and a curator with hundreds of incarcerated people in Michigan. Many of the most thoughtful, generous, disciplined and moral among them were sentenced to life in prison. They do whatever they can to keep their souls alive and to help others around them.
Many of us have done serious harm to another person, and we attempt to grow and change from that regretted event. However, most of us don’t use this self-knowledge to understand those who are sent to prison for serious transgressions. If there were more ways to interact with such people, we would be able to see these connections.
When allowed to live in the world, many “lifers” use the inner resources they have gained while incarcerated to be productive and assist others in need. I have seen too many of my friends die in prison.
Thank you, Barbara Hanson Treen, for bringing this great national shame to our attention.
Janie Paul
Ann Arbor, Mich.
The writer is co-founder and curator of the “Annual Exhibition of Artists in Michigan Prisons” and author of “Making Art in Prison: Survival and Resistance.”
Close Call on Jan. 6: Perhaps the Secret Service Helped Save Democracy
To the Editor:
Re “Jan. 6 Transcript Casts Light on Trump’s Capitol Demand” (news article, March 12):
The newly revealed testimony of a Secret Service agent that on Jan. 6, 2021, then-President Trump “was insistent on going to the Capitol” following his inflammatory speech confirms Mr. Trump’s intent to personally lead the insurrection against our government.
The mob he had summoned and dispatched to the Capitol was already battling with the police, as Mr. Trump doubtless knew, yet he wanted to join them.
For what reason? Certainly not to tell the mob to cease and desist. We know that because he watched their efforts and declined to call for peace for three hours after the Secret Service returned him to the White House.
What would Mr. Trump have done if he had joined his fighting supporters? He would have tried to force his way into the Capitol in a final attempt to intimidate Vice President Mike Pence and cow Congress into rejecting Joe Biden’s victory.
American democracy had a closer call than has been recognized. Perhaps it was the Secret Service’s refusal to allow Mr. Trump to rendezvous with the mob that made the difference.
Mitchell Zimmerman
Palo Alto, Calif.
A Faulty Analogy on the Killing of Innocents
To the Editor:
Re “‘The Zone of Interest’ Won’t Let Us Look Away,” by David Klion (Opinion guest essay, March 9):
Mr. Klion draws a line from the “routine lives mostly unperturbed” of the camp commandant, Rudolf Höss, and his family just outside the confines of Auschwitz to the indifference that Mr. Klion sees among his fellow Jews and others to Israel’s killing of Palestinians, including many children, in Gaza.
Indifference to the suffering of innocents is surely regrettable, and killing or allowing the readily preventable death of a single child, much less many children, is difficult to justify. Yet conflating Israelis and the Palestinians of Gaza with, respectively, the perpetrators and the victims of the Holocaust is fundamentally flawed.
Consider just this: Today, Hamas has it within its power to stop the deaths and help restore the health of Gaza’s children, at least temporarily, by agreeing to the proposal, accepted by Israel, for a six-week cease-fire. Of greater benefit, Hamas can end the war in its entirety by surrendering. Was saving their 1.5 million children murdered in the Holocaust an option for the Jews of Europe?
Joshua M. Farber
Bethesda, Md.
The Purpose of College
To the Editor:
Re “Deciding Whether a College Degree Pays Off” (Your Money Adviser, March 2):
How sad! College used to be mainly about making its graduates more well-rounded citizens better equipped to improve their world. Now it’s a competition to see which school’s diploma will translate into higher salaries?
No wonder some pretty prestigious schools are either considering cutting or have actually eliminated humanities and other disciplines from their roster of degree paths.
College should be a time to unleash our curiosity and explore the world around us. I fear that it’s becoming merely a tunnel to a paycheck.
Mindi Lo Cicero
Yonkers, N.Y.