This letter is in response to both an article by Douglas Wright (Problems plague prison) and an editorial by John Balentine (Prioritizing prisons).

Do our prisons have a problem in the state of Maine? Hey, without a doubt. Whose fault is it? It certainly is not the fault of the taxpayer, that’s for sure.

John Balentine’s comments at the end of his editorial were, “Perhaps we should open our wallets and build more jails. There are more criminals now and we need to make room for them. Fighting jail overcrowding is a worthy cause. Because, ultimately, it reflects on ourselves as a society.”

Personally, I do not care if there are two prisoners per cell or two hundred. They created the problem as to why they were incarcerated with perhaps some help from an education system in Maine that is failing and a complete lack of family guidance. Why can you see youngsters roaming around Windham at 2 or 3 a.m.?

But whatever the cause of one being in jail, ultimately the responsibility falls upon the individual themselves.

So, who pays for it? We the taxpayers, that’s who.

How about changing the system? Let’s make those who go to jail pay for it for the rest of their lives. Financially is what I am talking about. Send them a bill. If they go on welfare (the way life should be in Maine), then let’s take the welfare check away from them and give them some choices. Work. What? Work? That’s right, work!

No welfare, no food stamps, no fuel assistance. Nah Dah. Nothing. No voting either.

If they don’t like it, go to another state that gives welfare as a God-given right like Maine does.

John, you should not feel ashamed for how our prisons incarcerate their prisoners.

You didn’t put them there. They did that by themselves. And some states now send bills to their former inmates which is what should happen here.

So, to conclude, don’t do the crime if you don’t want to do the time. And be prepared to pay because I have a feeling you haven’t paid for anything in your life and if prison makes your life miserable, it’s what you criminals deserve.

The inhumanity and incivility comes from the low life’s themselves, not from those who pay (us taxpayers) or those who run the prisons.

Actually we need a prison warden like the one in Arizona. Put the prisoners in tents. Now in Arizona that means heat and in Maine that would mean cold. So be it. Cruel and unusual punishment? That’s what we, the taxpayer, are suffering from.

Lane Hiltunen

Windham