Letters: Telemarketing not proper job for Nevada prisons' inmates

My question is: Did the director of the Department of Prisons fall and bump his head or what, in having inmates work as telephone solicitors? Honest to God, giving convicted felons my name and phone number so that I can be solicited for a phone service (and who knows what else) is beyond my comprehension!

Being in the field of law enforcement myself, I am well aware of the endless capabilities of these people. To furnish them with my name and phone number (which I pay extra for each month to have unlisted and unpublished so these people have as difficult a time as possible trying to find out this private information on me and my family) and to then have my employer, the state of Nevada, turn around and furnish them this information, is something that I would never thought I would see. We need to stop it before it starts.

If these inmates want a job, that is all well and good. Let them do labor in the prison yard, paint and upkeep the cell blocks, or put them on a chain gang and let them pick up trash. There are a million other constructive things they can be doing without my name and phone number.

This is a case of someone in the Department of Prisons seeing dollar signs and running the department like a money-making business instead of using their good common sense. These inmates aren't locked up because they are trust worthy Boy Scouts.

What's next, letting the female inmates at the women's prison run phone sex lines and the department getting a cut of that?

I have had many dealings with inmates behind prison walls, and the only thing I can say is, stop this now. This little venture just placed every police officer, correctional officer, judge, jury member, and their families in jeopardy.

Don't you think these people remember who arrested them, tried them, or placed them in the hole one month before their parole date? The first time my family and I start getting harassing and threatening phone calls and I find out that this is where they are coming from, "I'll see you in court, and you better have your big wallet open."

Douglas R. Orr

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