Letter to the Editor re Youth Promise Act

This was recently published in the Santa Rosa, CA Press Democrat.
Please feel free to adapt or copy but do check the requirements in
any paper you choose to send to. They each have different length
requirements, and most do not want to publish a letter that appeared
elsewhere.

Note: I'd love it if people would share their published letters/articles
so we could get more info out there. Many people read letters to
the editors.

Kendra Mon wrote:
> "CORRECTIONS" SYSTEM SO WRONG
>
> Correcting California's so-called “corrections” system could reduce
> budget woes and help people turn their lives around. In the last 20
> years our prison population tripled. We waste billions of dollars
> yearly, locking up thousands of nonviolent drug offenders though
> community-based treatment is cheaper and actually gets people off
> drugs. We throw away hundreds of millions of dollars annually on the
> largest, most dysfunctional death penalty system in the country even
> though permanent imprisonment is cheaper and just as effective. We pay
> over $380 million every year to lock up more than 1,600 young people
> in youth prisons, even though local programs like Sonoma County's
> Restorative Resources are cheaper and more effective.
>
> The Youth Promise Act is Congressional legislation that could help
> turn our youth corrections system around. House bill H.R.1064 and
> companion Senate bill S.435 would provide funding to local community
> councils to spend on effective programs that reduce youth crime,
> violence and incarceration. This bill has bipartisan support as well
> as endorsement by officials and organizations concerned with law
> enforcement, civil rights, education, and the U.S. Congress of Mayors.
> The knowledge about effective rehabilitation programs exists. It's a
> crime not to use it to save lives and taxpayer dollars.

This is 200 words, which may not work for your paper. Also, a reader
commented I should have included what people can do to help.
Another reader suggested changing "just as effective" in 4th line
from the bottom of the first paragraph to "no less effective" and adding
the adjective "remarkable" in front of "bipartisan support" in the middle
of the second paragraph. All good comments you may want to take
advantage of.

Please do share your writings!

Kendra Mon, CA 6th CDTL