The country and Maine (especially the area of Kidder Street in Winslow) are being paralyzed by a criminal element that fears nothing because there is nothing more to fear. Society is permissive, the courts are lenient and law enforcement is disgusted by the bureaucracy and failures of the judicial system.

For example: If a criminal is caught burglarizing, a typical sentence is three years in jail with all suspended except for 90 days and he or she is placed on probation for one year. All the criminal has to do is report once a week to his/her probation officer and say, “I’ve been very good this week” and off he/she goes to fool everyone again about their honesty and rehabilitation.

What is a wrong when decent, law-abiding people have to lock their doors and bar their windows and keep loaded guns by their bedside, when a person can’t go to work without fearing for the safety of their family, or when a woman can’t walk the streets without the fear of sexual assault, or when drugs are peddled in areas around our schools and children?

The criminals are turning the streets into jungles, and our homes into jails. Who really pays for the crimes? The victims, that’s who.

What is there for the criminal to fear? Certainly the criminal has no need to fear serving the full sentence of their conviction.

The courts should convict and carry out sentences to the full extent of the law.

Since victims pay the ultimate price for situations they did not commit, then criminals should pay the ultimate punishment for the crimes they did commit.

I used to have faith in God and the judicial system, but it seems both have forsaken me.

David R. CarpenterWinslow