If the photo of the prison with Jeff Jacoby’s articlecolumn is typical (”As capital punishment fades, progressives take aim at a new target,” Ideas, Aug. 7), we treat animals in zoos better than people in prisons.
Margaret L. Herley
Boston
While I strongly disagree with Jeff Jacoby’s support for the death penalty, I concur with him that it would be a grave mistake to eliminate life without parole. Were Massachusetts to do so, there would be a push to restore capital punishment for “the worst of the worst.” However, life without parole should not be automatic for first-degree murder. There is a significant difference between, say, serial murder for pleasure or a hate-inspired mass murder and killing a clerk during a robbery or even murder for insurance proceeds. Life without parole, as a case-by-case option, would be the smart approach, making it available for the select few who are “the worst of the worst.”
James Alan Fox
Boston
The writer is a professor of criminology, law, and public policy at Northeastern University.