Editor, Gazette-Journal:

The most disgusting thing I have ever heard about is happening in our justice system now. If a person is arrested for not paying child support, s/he can be incarcerated for from six to 12 months while you and I pay for the operations of the jail and the salaries of the sheriff’s employees who supervise the jail. According to the Pew Center on the States, for every dollar spent on education, sixty cents is spent on corrections in Virginia.

But the very real problem is the foolishness of putting someone in jail for non-payment of child support. If a person can’t come up with the money to pay child support when he is free to work, who is he supposed to earn anything while in jail? This is a perfect situation to use work-release so the children for whom he owes support payments are not further harmed.

Change is needed in Virginia’s justice system.

Chuck Thompson

Gloucester, Va. ...