Once again, we see that the scales of justice don’t weigh equally for whites and Blacks. Under your Oct. 10 headline, “They once served the public. Now they will serve time,” we read that Kenneth Johnson (a Black former Cleveland councilman) was sentenced to six years in prison for public corruption, while former Cuyahoga County Jail Director Ken Mills (who is white) was only given nine months, and won’t even have to serve them in the jail he allowed to fall into such miserable condition. That would certainly have made the punishment fit the crime.
The councilman merely stole a lot of money from taxpayers, but the jail director actually caused harm, and even death, to human beings under his watch. It’s appropriate for the councilman to make restitution of at least some of the money and to serve time. But for the guy who defied his superiors, caused the jail to be overcrowded and understaffed, and tried to make money out of the deal to get a slap on the wrist — how is this justice? It’s time our judges put the blindfolds on, so they can’t let the race of the convicted influence the sentences they hand out.
Judith Weiss,
Rocky River
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