Jail Race Riots

Re “Sheriff’s Department Seeks Solution to Race Riots in Jail,” May 9: We have been offering volunteer services to prisons around the world for 15 years. Integration is the answer to racial healing. Community brotherhood. How about some extra incentives for prisoners to become teachers or mentors? Turn down the lights a few hours a day; put up some helpful reentry information, some self-control techniques; play some jazz, classical or oldies music once a day when the lights are down.

Small acts of kindness toward prisoners will go a long way toward community renewal both inside and outside the bars.

Some prisoners will respond and some will not. We must give a little if we expect to receive.

DAN MILLSTEIN

Peace in Prison 2000

Costa Mesa

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Re “Black Inmates’ Suit Blames Sheriff for Riots at Pitchess,” May 11: Attorney Leon Jenkins is wrong in claiming the Sheriff’s Department has shown “a total indifference to the plight of the African American inmates in their custody.” The Sheriff’s Department is caught between a rock and a hard place. If they segregate, they’re sued by the ACLU. If they don’t segregate, they’re sued by Jenkins. With Hispanics outnumbering blacks, what is the department supposed to do?

TRENT D. SANDERS

La Canada