Issues, Not Inmates

Many locals were hoping that State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson would be pursuing issues that actually affect our community: issues like gang violence and safety, the increasing homeless problem, the increasing liability of government employee pension liabilities on our city’s budget, improving the quality of teachers in our schools, and reducing “red-tape’ and onerous regulations for our many local business owners. But, no. She has chosen to focus upon prisoners. However, not on the early release of prisoners onto our streets, as one might suspect. Instead, she has chosen to become an advocate for the 20 women a year, on average over the last seven years, who have chosen (probably wisely) to have tubal ligations so they will not bring more unwanted children into their world, as Nick Welsh wrote in “Secretly Sterilized” in your July 18 issue.

These are woman in federal prison, some with mental instability, who have accepted the counsel of health professionals in prison and decided that maybe, given their lifestyle, it would be prudent for them not to have more children. No doubt they came to the conclusion that repeated lawbreaking and incarceration is no way to raise a child.

Here is hoping that Senator Jackson stops “grandstanding” and redirects her attention and considerable mental abilities to the issues that affect 99.9 percent of the population she represents.