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Letters to the Editor

A historical footnote

The history of blacks in Boston is often overlooked. It was informative to learn recently in another Boston newspaper that the city’s first black police officer was actually Horatio Julius Homer, who joined the force in 1878. It was previously thought that there were no black police officers until 1919, 41 years later.

Unfortunately, a historical nugget not included in the report is that the public official who sponsored Homer’s appointment, abolitionist John Jay Smith, was also black.

Georgine M.R. Hill,
Great-granddaughter of
John Jay Smith

Proposed prison fees are unfair

What? A $5 a day assessment on prisoners? The system already puts unrealistic expectations on these kids once they get caught up in the system. Politicians love to talk about ending gangs in the streets. What about ending state-run and funded gangs posing as institutes of rehabilitation? Both run the same way — once in — it’s almost impossible to get out. The prisons try to keep you as a prisoner for life.

Please tell me how one can pay a $5 fee per day/restitution when the CORI system blocks them from getting a decent job when they get out? So then that puts another burden on the families, as if they haven’t gone through enough. Either the family assumes the responsibility to pay these fees until the ex-prisoner finds employment, or they sit back and watch them go back into the system. What is the charge? Probation violation for not paying fees.

It’s amazing how the powers that be can get on one accord but can’t agree long enough to actually pass a bill that helps the people and the community once this so called rehabilitation has taken place. These kids just don’t realize — the judge may assign them one year jail time — but they will ultimately be serving a life sentence.

CDG
Via e-mail