Restorative Justice

Los Angeles County voters will soon select a new district attorney, and it likely will be their most consequential vote in years. It is hard to overstate the role that the top prosecutor of the nation's most populous county will have as California completely reinvents its justice system. Residents must demand a D.A. who will do his or her utmost to keep them safe, while at the same time embracing reform and ensuring smarter, and less costly, punishment and supervision of nonviolent criminals.

Los Angeles County voters will soon select a new district attorney, and it likely will be their most consequential vote in years. It is hard to overstate the role that the top prosecutor of the nation's most populous county will have as California completely reinvents its justice system. Residents must demand a D.A. who will do his or her utmost to keep them safe, while at the same time embracing reform and ensuring smarter, and less costly, punishment and supervision of nonviolent criminals.

Bright-orange pumpkins are ripening in a 6-acre garden that provided a summer-long cornucopia of fresh vegetables for a food bank serving some of the poorest counties in Missouri. Cultivating and harvesting the bounty were inmates at Southeast Correctional Center, where the garden is located.

Kurt Streeter's idea of restorative justice in baseball [Aug. 9] is nothing short of asinine. Most of us agree that performance-enhancing drugs should be eliminated in sports. One can argue that the penalties are not severe enough. The truth is, fame and fortune were the motive for taking drugs, and the punishment taxes both fame and fortune. Restorative justice fails to provide any further deterrent and would reduce the financial penalty as Streeter proposes it. Imagine if all unions advocated this reform for failed drug tests.

We've tried blame. We've tried shame. We've tried hard punishment. But on the doping-in-sports front, we're making very little real progress. Suspicion still reigns. Chemists remain ahead of the testers. Every other week there's a new bust. We've hit a wall. There are the athletes who get caught and then, invariably, smile and smirk, duck and dodge, taking as little responsibility as possible. There are those, like me, who feel moral outrage -- that altering the body this way should never be condoned.

Deep inside this infamous old prison, Patty O'Reilly stands before eight men doing hard time, her shoulders slumped, a man's gold wedding band hanging from a chain around her neck. Three of the inmates are sobbing. The others sit motionless on metal chairs, eyes locked on the small, sad woman in front of them. O'Reilly's words seep out. A ballet teacher from Sonoma, she has come to San Quentin to share a story -- about the killing of a husband and the trauma caused by that loss.

Kurt Streeter's idea of restorative justice in baseball [Aug. 9] is nothing short of asinine. Most of us agree that performance-enhancing drugs should be eliminated in sports. One can argue that the penalties are not severe enough. The truth is, fame and fortune were the motive for taking drugs, and the punishment taxes both fame and fortune. Restorative justice fails to provide any further deterrent and would reduce the financial penalty as Streeter proposes it. Imagine if all unions advocated this reform for failed drug tests.

Re "California Executes Confessed Murderer," Jan. 19: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's refusal to grant clemency to Donald Beardslee killed a human being. Unlike the cop-killing robot in the first "Terminator" movie, the terminators Schwarzenegger played in sequels avoided killing humans. It is morally wrong to kill a human being who is not threatening you. Schwarzenegger missed a golden opportunity to limit his killing to the movies, and to remind people that killings depicted in movies do not justify and should not incite killing in real life.

IT'S a warm, cloudless day and Patty O'Reilly is about to meet the man who killed her husband. A million thoughts compete for attention in her head. Two stand out. Why am I here? What good will it do? It has taken O'Reilly 29 months to get to this emotional state, to the point where she can walk on sturdy legs into a maximum-security prison and face a convict who blasted a giant crater in her life. In the beginning, O'Reilly felt only loathing for the man.

There are those who say Cal Ripken Jr. and his streak of consecutive games played saved baseball after the World Series-obliterating strike of 1994. If so, a New York judge named Sonia Sotomayor had an assist. In the spring of 1995, major league players were still on strike and baseball's owners conducted spring training with replacement players, mostly longshot minor leaguers with little chance of reaching the majors any other way.

We've tried blame. We've tried shame. We've tried hard punishment. But on the doping-in-sports front, we're making very little real progress. Suspicion still reigns. Chemists remain ahead of the testers. Every other week there's a new bust. We've hit a wall. There are the athletes who get caught and then, invariably, smile and smirk, duck and dodge, taking as little responsibility as possible. There are those, like me, who feel moral outrage -- that altering the body this way should never be condoned.

There are those who say Cal Ripken Jr. and his streak of consecutive games played saved baseball after the World Series-obliterating strike of 1994. If so, a New York judge named Sonia Sotomayor had an assist. In the spring of 1995, major league players were still on strike and baseball's owners conducted spring training with replacement players, mostly longshot minor leaguers with little chance of reaching the majors any other way.

Bright-orange pumpkins are ripening in a 6-acre garden that provided a summer-long cornucopia of fresh vegetables for a food bank serving some of the poorest counties in Missouri. Cultivating and harvesting the bounty were inmates at Southeast Correctional Center, where the garden is located.

With even Democrats expressing support for the nominee, the confirmation hearing today for Atty. Gen.-designate Michael B. Mukasey may seem short on drama. Over his 40-year career, Mukasey, 66, has left a rich paper trail of work from which lawmakers can judge his fitness to serve, and the onetime prosecutor, private lawyer and federal judge is viewed by members of both parties as well-qualified. "I like Judge Mukasey," Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.

IT'S a warm, cloudless day and Patty O'Reilly is about to meet the man who killed her husband. A million thoughts compete for attention in her head. Two stand out. Why am I here? What good will it do? It has taken O'Reilly 29 months to get to this emotional state, to the point where she can walk on sturdy legs into a maximum-security prison and face a convict who blasted a giant crater in her life. In the beginning, O'Reilly felt only loathing for the man.

Deep inside this infamous old prison, Patty O'Reilly stands before eight men doing hard time, her shoulders slumped, a man's gold wedding band hanging from a chain around her neck. Three of the inmates are sobbing. The others sit motionless on metal chairs, eyes locked on the small, sad woman in front of them. O'Reilly's words seep out. A ballet teacher from Sonoma, she has come to San Quentin to share a story -- about the killing of a husband and the trauma caused by that loss.

President Virgilio Barco Vargas assumed personal responsibility Thursday for restoring justice and order in Colombia through social reforms and an effective judiciary. In an inaugural address launching his four-year term, Barco, the Liberal Party leader, outlined a program to end guerrilla violence, crime and social insecurity through a war on poverty.

Re "California Executes Confessed Murderer," Jan. 19: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's refusal to grant clemency to Donald Beardslee killed a human being. Unlike the cop-killing robot in the first "Terminator" movie, the terminators Schwarzenegger played in sequels avoided killing humans. It is morally wrong to kill a human being who is not threatening you. Schwarzenegger missed a golden opportunity to limit his killing to the movies, and to remind people that killings depicted in movies do not justify and should not incite killing in real life.