Repeated crime a failure to rehabilitate habitual offenders

In response to Michael Ramirez’s Sept. 9 editorial cartoon, the tragic murder of Eliza Fletcher is neither the result of liberal justice reform nor the early release of Cleotha Abston.

The cause of repeated crime is our failure to rehabilitate a habitual offender. We punish 16-year-old boys by sentencing them to 20-plus years and sending them to prisons rife with contraband, gang activity and desperate survival mentalities. Then we let them return to the very community they harmed.

His release, like the 600,000 Americans released every year, was inevitable, despite what the Right might believe. The only way to improve public safety is to evaluate a human being’s propensity to commit crimes and sentence them to how long it will take to repair them.

KATE BOCCIA, ALPHARETTA, CEO, NATIONAL INCARCERATION ASSOCIATION

Luckovich’s cartoons reveal paper’s hard-left slant

While it’s true that Mike Luckovich’s sad cartoon of Lady Liberty crying for 9/11 did reflect the feelings of a majority of Americans, it certainly is untrue of the majority of his offerings, as frequently shown in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

The praise of this left-leaning cartoonist, not only in the Sept. 11, 2022 issue, but in past issues, is indicative of the daily hard-left slant the paper takes, leaving conservatives feeling that on balance our views and attitudes are very rarely represented, even in token amount.

If you are working hard to change our views, be advised the constant leftward spin of articles and news is counterproductive, as it only hardens conservatives’ feelings that we are left out in the cold in our city’s largest daily newspaper.

Showing a cartoon by Michael Ramirez as “From the Right” is hardly a placebo since those are often leftist sentiments. We feel we get “the leftovers” (pun intended!).

L.B. STREETS, ATLANTA

Keep Reading

Prenatal appointments — like this one in New Jersey in 2021 — are important to the health of a developing baby and the pregnant mother, but women without insurance or those who live far from health care providers may not be able to afford or travel to those appointments. (Alice Proujansky/The New York Times 2021)

Featured

The city of Atlanta opened Azalea Fresh Market downtown to help residents find affordable groceries. (Natrice Miller/AJC)