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ChipThompson, Editor How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: Daily News 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Webster'sdictionarydefinesaconjugalvisit as a scheduled period of time in which an inmate in prison is permitted to spend sev- eral hours or even days in absolute private with a visitor, usually their legal spouse. WhenIfirstlearnedof these visits many years ago my thought was that we should not allow those in prison one of the most profound and intimate pleasures of liv- ing free. Those inmates have al- ready been con- fined to jail for abusing our laws and thus society. I mostly have mixed feelings as to whether they should be given this normal experience or not. A primary purpose of this program is to allow inmates to maintain the family bonds they already have. These visits actually take place in a room or structure specifically de- signed for comfort and com- plete privacy. In the early 1990s Amer- ica had 17 states that allowed conjugal visits. More recently, in 2007 California's Depart- ment of Corrections choose to update the visits and also al- low same sex couples to qual- ify for this special privilege. The first state to implement and then finally end such in- timate visits was Mississippi. That magnolia state allowed conjugal visits from 1962 to 2016. The way in which this privi- lege is allowed does vary from state to state and also country to country. In 2015 a court in the country of India ruled that conjugal visits are a funda- mental right for their inmates. It also surprised me when I learned that in 2001 Russia even grants a holiday furlough to their well behaved prisoners to allow them the same priv- ilege. My question is, why should an inmate in California's prison system get to enjoy the pleasures of someone they love just as I do? The four states that still al- low conjugal visits are Cali- fornia, New York, Connecti- cut and Washington. In recent years, two other states stopped this practice, Mississippi and New Mexico. There is another reason of- ten used to justify these conju- gal visits, reducing recidivism. John Henry Simonis, a close friend and neighbor of mine, was a bit surprised when I told him these kind of visits were actually occurring. Like most people, "conjugal" was not a word he uses on a regular ba- sis. I can tell you that John is a regular guy nearly 40 years old, who I am certain will never go to prison and need this privilege. He has four chil- dren and happily lives with his wife in Oak Run. My personal take on these special visits is that the sys- tem should probably be used only to keep the most reason- able law violators in line when they live within our prison sys- tem. It should be used with great care. I have sometimes even won- dered, tongue in cheek, if our government would just con- sider "holding any dessert" during meal times. Maybe that's all that would be needed to make them behave. However, California, which is much more liberal that most other states, would proba- bly consider such action cruel and unusual treatment. Please share your opinion on this. Mytakeonthemovies The newly release film "Lion" will draw you in, espe- cially because it is based on a true story. I recommend it. This film should teach ev- eryone how very lucky we are to have been born in America, the very lap of luxury. StanStathamserved1976-1994 in the California Assembly and was a television news anchor at KHSL-TV in Chico 1965-1975. He is past president of the California Broadcasters Association and can be reached at StanStatham@ gmail.com. StanStatham My take on conjugal visits In the early 1990s America had 17 states that allowed conjugal visits. More recently, in 2007 California's Department of Corrections choose to update the visits and also allow same sex couples to qualify for this special privilege. Charges are outrageous Editor: Regarding the recent story about Lindsay Lang, 33, being arrested for having sex with a 13- and 14-year-old boy, I must say I think it's outrageous, the crimes she's been charged with, such at rape. Since when and how can a woman rape a man? Isn't that like "man bites dog?" The other charge of assault. Like she chased him down and attacked him? Right. The boy was referred to as the victim. Are you kidding? We all know how horny, not holy, teen boys can be. If he was such a victim why did he keep com- ing back for more? Five encoun- ters were reported. He was such a victim he kept coming back and brought along his buddy the fifth time. Those poor vic- tims. I'm sure they'll be ru- ined for life. They'll probably be bragging to their friends about their early sex education for years. Incapable of giving consent five separate times? Yeah, right. These kids today are sexually aware and active at age 9 or 10 it seems. It appears there was no force or coercion of the boys on her part, so how the heck could it be rape? Let's remember that in early times in America people of- ten married at very young ages, such as country singer Loretta Lynn at age 13. Many may recall in the '90s the Seattle school teacher Mary Latourneau, who had several sexual encounters with one of her students, a 12- or 13-year- old boy, and later had his child. She spent several years in prison and they truly loved each other and later married. I thought that was outrageous and unjust because it was to- tally consensual and the boy bragged to his friends that he could seduce her. Now, of course, what they did was very wrong, but I thought her punishment was way out of line and unjust. She should have been dismissed from her teaching job, which she was, and perhaps a fine and community service would suffice. He should have been given a good old fashioned bare butt thrashing to learn lust control. Likewise in this case. I think her $650,000 bail is crazy and probably unconstitutional. The eighth amendment, part of the Bill of Rights, prohibits exces- sive bail. If it were up to me she would get a few weeks in county jail and a reasonable fine and com- munity service. And I'd order the boys a trip to the woodshed for bare butt thrashing with the hickory switch to learn self-re- straint as part of their sex edu- cation. Self-control and restraint, that's what it's all about in all areas — sex, food, drink- ing, etc. Back in earlier sane and simple times, when com- mon sense ruled, the schools had wooden paddles, referred to often as the "board of ed- ucation." Young boys needed to be taught sex education for enforcement of sexual moral- ity, as the males are the ones capable of rape and sexual as- sault. An also it's appropriate for males to be punished for sex with underage girls. I keep hoping and praying for a revival and return of com- mon sense in America. — David Gates, Red Bluff Mr. Trump, build that wall Editor: Contrary to columnist Michael Reagan's Red Bluff Daily News article of Jan. 27, the wall is es- sential to channel the entrance of drugs to the US and prevent returning money from US drug sales to Mexico. It also ends the porous border passage of undocumented cross- ers from Mexico and Central America, who burden US citizens with the one third million cost of birth to age 18 education and health care of each of their chil- dren born in the US. With 11 million undocumented now estimated in the US, clearly the past 1980s amnesty pro- gram was a failure, since there was limited deportation of those committing the crime of undoc- umented crossing and the use of forged identity. Some have com- mitted a third felony crime of voting, theft, or burglary. Restart the Bracero program that ended in 1964, because Kennedy and unions wrongly thought Braceros with time lim- ited visas, were taking US jobs. With huge welfare benefits for citizens of Medicaid, Food Stamps, Aid to Dependent Chil- dren, housing assistance, earned income tax credits, ObamaCare, easily obtained disability pen- sions after ending unemploy- ment insurance and dozens of other subsidies for not working, few citizens accept the fairly paid agriculture jobs taken by the un- documented. A combination of building the wall, increased border surveil- lance at the check points, deport- ing the undocumented commit- ting a third felony and restarting the temporary visa Bracero pro- gram benefits all citizens. — Joseph Neff, Corning Your opinions Cartoonist's take All our W-2s and 1099s have arrived by now, so it's time to be thinking about taxes. Tax time is a season most of us dread. CPAs and tax preparers are now entering a phase just like retailers do when the Christmas sea- son begins. This is their time of year. Many of us buy tax software and prepare our own returns, while others will hire a tax professional. If you qualify for Form 1040EZ, then it's a no brainer to do yourself. Others may seek the aid of Vista volunteers. But regardless, it is something we all must do — as the quote goes, there's nothing more certain than "death and taxes". Many of us remember the old days. I always did my own taxes back then. The process was undertaken on the dining room table, which was the only place big enough to spread out all of those papers. I had a le- gal pad and a pencil, as there would be many erasures. We had more documentation then because many more things were deductible, i.e. all interest was deductible, such as credit cards and car payments. It was also much easier to claim med- ical deductions, unlike now, when only a medical disas- ter might be expensive enough to trigger the threshold. And pretty much anything related to your job for which you were not reimbursed was deductible too. And don't forget the char- itable deductions. This was when those receipts for all the stuff you donated finally came into play. It was a traumatic event, filled with peaks and valleys ranging from euphoria to the depths of despair, as I contin- ued to find even more deduc- tions and corrected my arith- metic errors. "My god, we owe $6,000 to the feds," I would shout. Then twenty minutes later. "Never mind, I forgot the mortgage interest — we're get- ting $1,200 back." The state return was not as bad, since it relied on the federal information. And so it would go, for hours, until I finally declared our return complete. Computers and tax software definitely made the process eas- ier. A person could rely upon the knowledge and accuracy of the program's creators. But no mat- ter how good the software, there was always some issue or other that wasn't clearly addressed, and we just had to "punt." I was never particularly con- cerned about the possibil- ity of a serious mistake, as our taxes were usually not compli- cated. Besides, Money magazine printed an article every year that compared the completed returns of 25 or so different tax preparers that used a typical middle-class scenario. The re- sults were always nothing short of astounding. It was like my outbursts at the dining room table. The range was something like the taxpayer owing $12,000 on one return and getting $6000 back on another. I may be exaggerating somewhat. And these were tax professionals, such as CPAs, enrolled agents, and software, with possibly a chimpanzee thrown in for good measure. If this was how the experts did, then my honest at- tempt to prepare a correct re- turn using my computer soft- ware should be good enough, right? But tax professionals have a knack for uncovering overlooked deductions and credits, which usually justifies their expense. I use their services whenever we have more complicated issues, such as rental income, or peri- ods of self-employment. And I must say that it is a much more pleasant experience to have a discussion with a human being rather than a program — and definitely beats the old dining room table. So, let's get those pa- pers together and get busy. April 15 will be here before you know it. Corky Pickering and his wife relocated from the Bay Area to Cottonwood in 2014. He recently retired from the federal government as an attorney advising law enforcement. He has been a rock and roll bass player and a Marine JAG. He can be reached at thecork6@ gmail.com. Corky Pickering Tax time is upon us Stan Statham Corky Pickering OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Thursday, February 16, 2017 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4