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Immigration policy: I think it's worth to issue work permit for illegal immigrants rather than putting another burlin wall. Fencing is a not a solution to prevevent people entering another country-it's not even a good one for animals. Afterall when did society started preventing people work! Are we encouraginging people to steal, rob to feed their family. Work permits are very common where it is hard to find seasonal or special projects. It's a good idea to use the point system to encourage people with good technical and professional come to USA. We are very short in Nursing staff. Why can't we encourage people to come from countries like Phillipines India etc where people with exeptional qualification are waiting years for VISA. Once there is huge demand like now, it shold be liberalized. They should get temporary permit and job letters to arrive here. It is a conditional provitional employment, if they fail to complete the required licenses, and english proficiency courses, they need to go back. Is it fair..............

I was amazed the way the prison system work in our country. May be it is time to look at crime and punishment in a different angle. The purpose of keeping someone in prison is to make them a better person in society. However, they are released early, ill prepared to deal with socity. The system is not capable to monitor them and provide rehab. In fact they need to get priority for employment in our community. - public works, MTA, DOT, - areas city provide service and have tax incentive for private companies hire them. Is it worth keeping people like Martha S or models, football players may get good PR but in terms of tax payer dollars, it is a waste. They may stay in half way home/house arrest with heavy fine is likely to teach a good lesson.

The Nation did an article on the practice by many states NOT to restore an ex-felon's right to vote... any comment?

The following statistics were taken from the website of the Federal Probation Office in St. Louis, Missouri, an agency that has focused it's efforts on offender employment, developed community partnerships, and held staff accountable for positive outcomes. Their work demonstrates that offender unemployment is not an unsolvable problem.

Offender Unemployment Statistics as of July 2007*
Eastern District of Missouri Caseload: 3.1%
General population in Missouri: 4.6%
General population in St. Louis: 4.5%
General population in the U.S.: 4.5%
*This is the 31st consecutive month that the caseload unemployment rate has been lower than the community rate.

Newark Mayor, Corey Booker wrote an excellent Op-Ed piece, on this subject, that appeared in this past Sunday's Star-Ledger. I am glad this problem is getting some attention. Yes, if you do the crime you must do the time, but one shouldn't be punished for the rest of your life. It's like some modern day scarlet letter. No wonder the high rates of recidivism. The only thing this policy benefits is the prison industry.

What about the arrears in child support that has accrued after someone has spent time in prison, that would be tens of thousands of dollars, and can't be adjusted because of the Bradley amendment 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(9)(c)?