Fulton jail

Facility safe, constantly improving

I am sure some Fulton County voters may appreciate your efforts to help them make informed choices at the polls on July 15. However, it is a disservice when you report misleading information ("Competent to serve," @issue, July 3).

Under my leadership, the Fulton County Jail is constantly improving. Look at the monitor's monthly reports to the federal court for proof. I have strengthened processes at the jail, and there have been zero escapes. There have been no erroneous releases, contrary to what you reported in your editorial. The record shows inmates are being released properly from the Fulton County Jail, according to federal guidelines, in a timely manner. Our agency has been incident-free since March 11, 2005, and all of us are working hard to keep it that way.

We held Brian Nichols during his rape trial and, later, on murder charges. He was moved to another facility along with more than 500 inmates to accommodate construction crews during the major $55 million renovation project in progress at the jail. I have outsourced inmates to the city of Atlanta, Clayton County, Cook County, Decatur County and the city of Pelham, as well as DeKalb County, to alleviate overcrowding.

When Ted Jackson served as interim sheriff, he was never in charge of the jail because during that period the jail was being run by a federal receiver. Jackson simply maintained the status quo at the Fulton County Courthouse. I took over and made improvements to security. It is safer than it has ever been. Endorse whomever you like, but please keep the facts straight. Your readers deserve the truth.

MYRON E. FREEMAN

Freeman is sheriff of Fulton County.

Prison, war on drugs both effective

Contrary to Cynthia Tucker's recent column ("Just filling prisons won't make us safer," @issue, June 29), evidence proves that imprisoning criminals works. Crime is down since we decided that criminals shouldn't be on the street but in prison. We still release too many repeat offenders who perpetrate many crimes regardless of previous imprisonment. Treatment works for only a very limited and motivated minority.

Tucker complains about the number of black men in prison. If we want to reduce that number, we should reverse liberal social policies installed since the 1960s and strengthen all traditional families, not just the black family. The black family was stronger in the 1950s than it is today.

Tucker says that the war on drugs has failed. It has been a demonstrable success. Drug use is down across all segments of American society. What would Tucker have? More drug use? More crime? More zoned-out teens and adults? More ruined lives?

EDWARD A. WATKINS

Lilburn

Delivery, rail got us through '40s rationing

During World War II there were ways we could cope with gasoline rationing.

Many businesses, such as drugstores, provided delivery service, often by bicycle. In Atlanta, Rich's and Davison's delivered our purchases in cardboard boxes, and we rode back home on the streetcar. The grocer delivered our telephone order to our kitchen in brown paper bags. The mailman brought our catalog order. The laundry and dry cleaner picked up and delivered our clothes every week. Peddlers brought us their goods, and farmers sold produce from wagons.

Long freight trains supplied our stores, and passenger trains crisscrossed Georgia. Greyhound and Trailways buses commuted between towns. We walked to the depot or the bus station or the streetcar stop on tree-lined sidewalks. If we owned a car, it usually stayed in the garage.

PATRICIA RIDLEY BARNETT

Alpharetta

It's good to read about local heros

Thanks to the AJC editorial board for almost an entire page on heroic "common" men and women dealt hard hands in tough economic times but who acted like real Americans who understood the principles of God and opportunity this country was founded on ("The resilient American spirit," @issue, July 4).

How uplifting it was to read stories of those who didn't demand that government take care of all their needs, but who rose to the occasion and proved this is still a land of plenty for those who wish it to be so.

ROBERTA CROMLISH

Stone Mountain