Consultant George Camp let the cat partially out of the bag with his comment about "less violent individuals" in the state penitentiary (Tribune, Nov. 6). He neglected, however, to tell the public what he darn well knows about the rest of that cat - that 75 percent of the current prison population in the State Penitentiary are in that category, already incarcerated because of drug addiction and would be served better by facilities in Jamestown and at the Bismarck Transition Center.

These two examples of "hospitals of hope" that exist around this state, are neglected by Gov. John Hoeven and certain "greed Republicans" - determined to blow millions of dollars on prison bars and cement, on "depots of despair," rather than allocating those dollars more realistically toward labor intensive drug treatment programs already up and running.

Better late than never. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem's recent public admission that meth and DUI's are among our most serious addiction/criminal problems is a start.

Next, he needs to acknowledge what he already knows, what North Dakota newspaper editorial boards know and what Govs. Ed Schafer and Hoeven were told by men and women they failed to heed, that the administration of Tim Schuetzle and Warren Emmer, like the administrations of all too many state prisons, have been presiding over a drug emporium for almost two decades that dwarfs the humble home of the unfortunate football coach Andy Reid.

The next step is up to the voting public of North Dakota to first acknowledge with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, that "taxes are the price we pay for civilization," but that using those taxes to keep "less violent" drug addicts in depots of despair is neither civilized nor sensible.

Then those voters need to put into office in 2008 a governor and Legislature wise and courageous enough to allocate tax dollars into pouring cement for decaying bridges, schools, health facilities and other physical infrastructure, and the rest for trained personnel to repair the decaying members of the human infrastructure that surrounds us, our brothers and our sisters in need of keeping.