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Letters to the Editor

Kudos to Mildred Avenue school

I have known Dr. Deborah Dancy for more than 35 years (“Mildred Avenue principal is ‘a neighborhood gem,’ ” Bay State Banner, Dec. 22, 2011).

We both attended Boston Technical High School. Even in high school everyone knew that she would be successful. She is passionate about education and an asset to our students.

She is a published author. “Yes! We Can: Strategies To Close The Achievement Gap” is an excellent reference tool for out-of-the-box thinking.

This educator knows her business!

Congratulations, Dr. Dancy!

Marilyn Kenoly
Kenoly Emerging Technologies, LLC


Pending three strikes law

Massachusetts should take lessons from California’s failures. Its tough on crime laws are bankrupting the state, while not improving quality of life or making us safer.

California’s three strikes law cost us billions by sentencing people to 25 years, at almost $50K a year for each prisoner, even if those people only stole a pizza or $12 worth of nails from Home Depot.  

California tipped the scales in paying more for prisons than for education. And, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Constitution — California must reduce the number of prisoners it packs in like feedlot cattle.

Who profits from failed criminal justice and horrifically overcrowded prisons that are bankrupting states across the nation?

District attorneys and prosecutors who are promoted for winning cases and harsh sentences at any cost; tough-on-crime, fear-mongering politicians hoping for votes; prison employee unions; and for-profit-contract-bed-privatized-corporation prisons that profit not from reforming people, but when the recidivism rate goes up.

The list goes on ...

Prayforpeace
Via e-mail