Letters to the editor

for Darfur is needed

Editor,

I am a senior attending Junipero Serra High School, and I am writing this letter to you asking for more articles to be written about the genocide in Darfur.

Hundreds of thousands of civilians have died from violence, disease, and starvation, and thousands of women have been raped. More than 2.5 million civilians have been driven from their homes, their villages torched and their property stolen. Thousands of villages have been destroyed and more than 230,000 people have fled to neighboring Chad.

I hope that you can write at least one article about the genocide in Darfur. These people need our help and educating people about genocide will help raise awareness.

Denis Young

San Mateo

Potential jail site

Editor,

I would like to offer my thanks to the County Board of Supervisors for removing the property at 1402-1450 Maple Street, Redwood City, California as a potential site for the new jail.

However, there are four remaining properties in Redwood City that remain as potential sites for the new jail that the county has under review. We as concerned citizens and members of the Coalition for No More Jails in Redwood City remain steadfast in our fight to keep all of Redwood City free from any new jails proposed by San Mateo County.

Redwood City has done more than its fare share of civic responsibility through four facilities currently housed in Redwood City, one of which is a Type II facility. The detention center/jail can house pre-trial, unsentenced and sentenced inmates. For those of us unfamiliar with the term "Type II” it also means that the facility can house anyone who may be drunk in public for one day to someone who has committed murder.

The remaining three facilities already struggle to provide those incarcerated with proper and/or adequate rehabilitation to re-enter society as self-supporting, confident, sober individuals. If these needs cannot be met now with the current facilities, adding a facility will not ease this need.

Please know, that while we appreciate the removal of the Maple Street property as a building site we will continue to fight the county if they peruse any other site in Redwood City.

Cristen Renken

Redwood City