Ex-offenders need help

I’m writing to thank Judy Smith ["Virginia must give ex-offenders a way to eventually rejoin our society," Dec. 30] for her insight into the "crippling disability" ex-offenders face when it’s time for them to re-enter society and to address disparity in sentencing.

Some of the inmates here have been released and, within a year, are back. After their release, some have lost their family and support system and end up in homeless shelters. As Ms. Smith wrote, there is little hope of obtaining public housing, food stamps or a job. If you were thrown into the streets with nowhere to live, no job and nothing to eat, what would you do?

Churches, food pantries and homeless shelters that are trying to help can only do so for so long. They have other priorities, such as helping families with children who are in need. Ex-offenders need more help to become productive, taxpaying citizens. We have completed our sentences, paid our debts to society and need some way to start over.

We are your brothers, sisters, fathers and mothers. We are legal American citizens, and most of us will be returning to your communities upon release. Who would you rather have in your community, someone who is receiving food stamps and working a job trying to do what is right or a "government-made" homeless, jobless desperado?

Lawmakers need to pass laws to help ex-offenders, especially first-time, non-violent offenders.

As for disparity in sentencing, I had never spent one day in jail until I was charged with drug conspiracy – no guns, no violence – and received a 16-year sentence in federal court. Federal sentencing requires you to do at least 85 percent of your time with no parole.

I opened my Bristol Herald Courier the other day and saw the sentence imposed on two guys who were sworn to uphold the laws of our country. They had been accused of rape and forcible sodomy of an underage girl. They received three years and one year, respectively, with some of the time suspended. Which sentence is more appropriate – 16 years for first-time drug conspiracy or one to three years for raping and sodomizing a child?

Richard "Rick" Allison
Glenville, W.Va.