Skip to main contentIf prison is our method of getting women the drug treatment they need, then we are in trouble ["Jail Birds," WW, Jan. 18, 2012]. Drug-treatment programs have been cut, and now funding is almost nonexisitent.
I work as a volunteer at Coffee Creek [Correctional Facility]. The women I know want better lives for themselves and their children. They want to get into the drug-treatment programs but can't because there isn't enough room. Not everyone is even eligible—it's contingent on their crime and sentence. Of those who are deemed eligible, I'd say about 25 percent are able to get into the treatment programs.
In a population where 89 percent have drug problems, what does this say about the rate of rehabilitation?
—"Volunteer at Coffee Creek"
Great look at a very under-reported problem. The piece is well-researched and well-written. Thank you for bringing these issues to light. This is the kind of stuff that will keep me picking up WW every week.
ââSam Elliottâ
Dawn Pearson should not be in prison. Obviously, she scored high enough on crime severity and criminal history on the sentencing-guidelines grid to "get" prison, but the guidelines can be deviated from with [the help of] a willing judge and prosecutor. Pearson is a small-time crook, and the state is wasting money on her (not that any lights would be turned off if she wasn't there). County jail, restitution to the victim(s) and community service would have sufficed. But you've got a whole lot of "idiocy" to overcome on the road to good sense in the adult-corrections world.
—"Lenday Near"
BRADY'S EXPERIENCE
What strikes me most about Eileen Brady ["Extra Seasoning," WW, Jan. 18, 2012] is that she's new to politics and doesn't have a record the public can judge her by.
We only have her past experience. And on that front, if this story is any indication, we don't know who the real Eileen Brady is, but this version seems like a fraud.
—"Left Coast"
Faithful WW readers will, of course, be waiting breathlessly for your exposés on your boy Jeff Smith. This Brady story is so much ado about nothing.
—"Per Plexed"
In the first 30 seconds of her interview, [Brady] says she was a "full-time volunteer," but in the article it states she was a full-time employee of other organizations. I just don't trust someone who exaggerates so much and so consistently. She does not come across as having enough integrity to be mayor of Portland.
—"Curlove"
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