Letters To The Editor

Halfway houses ease re-entry into society

Halfway houses such as Volunteers of America's Comprehensive Sanction Center are not intended to restrain violent criminals ("A halfway house full of holes," Feb. 17).

As the photograph that accompanies The Sun's article demonstrates, a halfway house is not a jail.

Jails are built to separate criminals from society, while halfway houses are designed to integrate criminals into the community. Many halfway house occupants are authorized to leave the facility during working hours, and these facilities feature no razor-wire fences or sharpshooters.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons often sends convicted criminals to halfway houses under the supervision of the U.S. Probation Office a few months before their sentences are complete.

Living in a halfway house, with fewer restrictions on their freedom, allows convicts to re-enter society gradually.

The U.S. Attorney's Office is consulted only if a federal judge uses a halfway house as a form of pretrial detention for a defendant who is awaiting trial or if a judge sentences a minor offender to a halfway house instead of to prison.

Federal prosecutors may agree to halfway house placement for nonviolent defendants who are unlikely to flee and unlikely to commit new crimes. But they will not do so for defendants who are liable to flee or who pose a danger to the community.

It is important for halfway houses to be free of corruption and for employees to keep track of residents.

No matter how well a facility is run, however, prosecutors oppose sending dangerous pretrial detainees to halfway houses.

Rod J. Rosenstein

Baltimore

The writer is U.S. attorney for Maryland.

Reassess how city spends its revenue

Thank you for the excellent article on the city property tax and for asking the all-important question, "But can the city get by with less?" ("The Big Squeeze," Feb. 17).

Part of the answer was buried deep in the article, when the writer noted that the city's property tax committee "did not consider ways to reduce government spending."

And the article correctly noted the smoke-and-mirrors that some of the committee's proposals represent.

Almost any way you look at it, under the proposal to cut the property tax rate but simultaneously weaken the homestead tax credit, homeowners will pay more, later if not sooner.

If the Dixon administration wants to be honest with us, it should leave the tax rate and homestead tax credit alone so that in the future, when we may be fortunate enough to see a larger actual property tax rate cut, we'll be able to compare an apple to an apple.

In the meantime, let's have an open discussion of the committee's other proposals and a real evaluation of where and how the city spends it revenue.

Barry Glassman

Baltimore

Taking DNA sample a physical violation

What strange world does Gov. Martin O'Malley inhabit in which the state taking samples from a citizen is "noninvasive" ("O'Malley urges DNA collection," Feb. 14)?

Ignoring, for the moment, the massive privacy concerns that DNA collection raises, there is a much more fundamental issue here: The sovereignty of the state ends at my skin.

The government has no legitimate authority to compel citizens who have not been convicted of a crime to undergo any medical procedure, however minor.

Tom Swiss

Catonsville

New leader will put a stamp on courts

The editorial "Judicial balance" (Feb. 18) offers a valuable analysis of what is at stake in the next election.

Voters must remember that judicial selection is a critical constitutional responsibility of the president.

The next president may well appoint several Supreme Court justices and half of the justices to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, as that court now has five vacancies.

Carl Tobias

Richmond, Va.

The writer is a professor of law at the University of Richmond.

Officers struggle to handle disrespect

After reading about 17-year veteran police Officer Salvatore Rivieri's incident with 14-year-old Eric Bush, I couldn't help but notice the teenager's total disregard for rules, along with his obvious disrespect for authority ("Skateboarder calls reaction over the top," Feb. 15).

Apparently this young man's upbringing caused him to think that he can selectively decidewhich rules he will adhere to and which he will choose to ignore.

As a retired police officer myself, I think that what Officer Rivieri did was over the top.

Apparently he had a bad day - one that many officers will experience in their careers, especially in today's environment, in which they have to deal with people who lack respect for themselves and for society.

Officer Rivieri messed up and should be punished, but not fired.

The lesson for other officers is that they should act like they are being taped - because they probably are.

John K. Cassady

Finksburg

Painful to watch teenager bullied

I was disgusted by the YouTube video featuring Officer Salvatore Rivieri berating and manhandling a young skateboarder ("Skateboarder calls reaction over the top," Feb. 15).