A California town looks to a prison for salvation; a veteran killed by police; the state of our species

Locking up a future

Re “Can a prison save a town?,” May 3

So apparently it is not enough that this land of freedom already incarcerates a greater percentage of its population than any other country in the world. Now many of our cities are attempting to acquire their own “correctional facilities” in order to ward off economic disasters.

At the rate things are going, everyone soon will be behind bars — either as a prison employee or as an inmate.

In times like this, God help us all!

Gordon Wilson
Laguna Niguel

Several years ago, the consulting firm I owned had a contract with the cities of Ely, Nev., and Brawley, Calif., to determine the impact of a proposed prison facility.

A lot of work and research substantiated three conclusions:

First, the local community would benefit financially only minimally from a new prison facility.

Second, guards do not live in prison communities. Many travel long distances so that their children do not go to school with the children of prisoners.

Last, a majority of new residents would be families of prisoners and would have few disposable dollars.

Of interest, the Department of Justice and the local communities ignored our reports and hired their own consultant, who proved with charts and statistics that the cities would “greatly benefit.” They never interviewed residents of communities that already had a prison nearby.

Jean Lawrence
Rancho Mirage

The death of a troubled vet

Re “Vet killed by police changed after Iraq,” May 2

Shame on the Veterans Administration — disturbed vet Steve Bours couldn’t be treated promptly in a psychiatric clinic that was closed on Saturday. We dump tens of billions into Iraq, Afghanistan and the rest of the troubled world and don’t have the money, leadership or interest to provide proper physical and mental care for injured vets. This man might be alive today if he had been admitted to that clinic.

Then the police come across him in the street with a hatchet in his hand and shoot to kill — eight times, no less. How about firing one of those shots into the ground with a warning that the next one is for him; then, if necessary, shoot at his legs? Better crippled than dead.

I’m sure that this sort of foul-up occurs many times across the country. It is a tragic waste of our young men and women who have already given so much, and deserve much better.

Stan Greenfield
Woodland Hills

The police did not kill Steve Bours; Steve Bours committed suicide by cop.

This is a terrible tragedy for Bours’ family as well as for the officers involved. Many in the law enforcement community are or were in the military, and I can’t imagine the pain the officers felt after they learned that Bours was a veteran. It appears the officers involved had to use a lethal level of force to protect themselves and their community.

I understand the pain Bours’ family must be feeling, but their anger should not be targeted at the police officers involved in this incident. Unfortunately, Bours created this incident, not the officers.

Ernie Gaxiola
Santa Clarita

Principles, swamped by oil

Re “An ugly, oily truth,” Opinion, May 4

Thank you, Charles Wohlforth, for your poignant Op-Ed.

I believe the effects of the Exxon Valdez oil spill will be felt for 100 years; the BP mess, probably longer.

Before this Gulf of Mexico disaster, what if President Obama had said: “No more offshore drilling; the risks are too great. We must conserve energy, change policy, think of creative solutions to our energy needs. Will you join me?”

He lost the high ground. Sometimes principles are more important than consensus-building.

Vicki Fleming
Manhattan Beach

Who knows where funds go?

Re “Following the money,” Editorial, April 28

Bravo, L.A. Times. State universities and their private foundations (also called auxiliaries) are indeed “intertwined.” Some auxiliaries make real estate deals; some compete for funding to generate their own resources; and some have university personnel on their boards.

Foundations also are the fiscal receivers for federal funding. University personnel write proposals, secure grant monies and do the work, but foundations manage grant budgets and collect indirect cost payments attached to those grants.

The federal government instituted the concept of indirect costs as a way to reimburse university general funds, spent especially in areas of research. I doubt, initially, that the feds had ever heard of auxiliaries, though they certainly know them now.

A university president can decide how to distribute those funds. When I was at Claremont Graduate University — a private institution — the president decreed every penny of the indirect cost reimbursements for faculty investigators and their departments. Not so at Cal State L.A. We never knew where those monies went. Maybe now there’s transparency. If not, the state’s work scrutinizing the auxiliaries may be just beginning.

Susan Steiner
South Pasadena
The writer is former associate vice president of research and sponsored programs, Claremont Graduate University, and retired director of research and sponsored programs, Cal State L.A.

Examining modern life

Re “As good as it gets,” Opinion, April 30

Michael Shermer presents a tunnel vision portrait of modern life. His focus on American materialism ignores a world full of problems for people elsewhere and for countless species we are destroying.

The same science and technology that have produced the material advances Shermer admires have been a disaster for the biosphere (the horrific oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico being merely the latest example). I guess Shermer can’t hear that loud sucking sound as Americans siphon from elsewhere far more than our fair share of the world’s resources.

Ironically, Shermer never mentions the two most noteworthy improvements in the U.S. condition over the last 50 years: the civil rights movement and advances in modern medicine.

Ben Zuckerman
Los Angeles

Dear Michael Shermer:

I’m one of your biggest fans, but your Op-Ed, on top of this beautiful spring weather, adds up to just a bit too much sunshine.

Your first sentence suggests an essay about the future, yet all you do is compare the present to the past, with the tacit assumption that there’s some scientific justification in extrapolating. If there is, then we’re past the point of no return on global warming, and my only cause for optimism is that I’m old and self-absorbed.

I’m probably at least as guilty as you of coveting, enjoying and even hoarding all the trappings of this “good life,” but your essay’s redundant cataloging of our material wealth reminded me of the anecdote about John Muir, who, according to Clifton Fadiman, “once declared that he was better off than the magnate E.H. Harriman. ‘I have all the money I want,’ Muir explained, “and he hasn’t.’”

I’m also reminded of the horrifying pronouncement with which my high school principal used to inspire every assembly: “These are the best four years of your lives.”

David Bortin
Whittier

Simple truth

Re “Playing the crime card in Arizona,” May 3

Here is a more meaningful statistic than the one claiming immigrants commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans: Illegal immigrants who are not allowed to remain in this country commit no crimes here at all.

James Dawson
Woodland Hills