Escape as rehabilitation

Re “Mom’s secret past catches up with her,” May 1

It is with sardonic amusement that I read of the plight of Susan Lefevre, found after years of living an exemplary life and now threatened with a return to prison -- and to be given extra years for escaping. After all, is not her story the best possible outcome for a criminal: to return to society and live an exemplary life?

To drag Lefevre back into prison seems totally senseless. Let’s hope that attorneys make a persuasive case for release or probation at home.

R.B. Anderson

Riverside

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Our jails are full of drug offenders and are sucking up tax dollars that would be much better used for schools and medical care. Lefevre and others in jail for similar offenses should be pardoned immediately. Our ridiculous drug laws should be repealed, as they have proved to be very expensive and not effective at all.

Thanks to our drug laws, our southern border is becoming a war zone, and the U.S. military has anti-drug operations throughout the world. It’s time for a total overhaul of U.S. drug laws.

Bob Stothart

Park City, Utah

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In defense of Lefevre’s impending extradition from California after three decades as a model citizen here, Russ Marlan of the Michigan Department of Corrections asks what kind of message letting her go would send to the other 50,000 inmates in Michigan: “If you escape and live clean, you can have your sentence dropped if you’re caught?”

Sounds good to me. Would that all inmates could do the same.

Cathy Von der Ahe

San Juan Capistrano