QUESTION OF THE MONTH

Q: As The Sun's recent series "Justice Undone" makes clear, Baltimore remains very far from winning its battle against the violence that plagues the city.

What new steps should the city and area citizens and community groups take to stop the violence?

Drug dealers need to be prosecuted and sentenced to very long jail terms, without the possibility of parole. Police need to provide fail-safe cases to city prosecutors so they can insist on very harsh sentences.

Judges in Baltimore need to slam the door on a justice system that continues to release thugs back to the streets to continue their criminal ways.

Jury members have to remember that it is their city and that their actions can help eradicate criminals from the streets of Baltimore.

Community groups and surrounding communities can't solve Baltimore's problems as long as city residents refuse to help reclaim the streets.

A city isn't the buildings; it's the people. And civic pride is non-existent in some parts of Baltimore.

The mayor's "Believe" campaign is useless unless the citizens of Baltimore believe in themselves -- and they don't.

David S. Blair

Cockeysville

After reading The Sun's series "Justice Undone" (Sept. 30-Oct. 2) and reviewing the horrific details of the recent fire-bombing, I am at a loss for new methods to stop the violence. I would offer instead another variable often overlooked in such debates -- responsibility.

The epidemic of murder and violence that plagues Baltimore transcends numbers. And until everyone accepts responsibility for his or her part in the problem, no meaningful discussions can take place.

The individuals who commit crimes are just the tip of the iceberg. Equally culpable are the relatives, friends and associates who harbor these individuals. While they may not fire the weapon or pass the drugs, they share the responsibility for such acts.

And slogans such as "Believe" are defined only by the courage of those willing to step forward and say that they, too, may be part of the problem.

Matt McElwee

Catonsville

"Justice Undone," The Sun's series on sloppy police work, clearly demonstrates that law enforcement must do a better job prosecuting violent criminals. But cops and lawyers come after the fact. Plenty of parents have to share the blame.

Violence, like respect, empathy and love, begins at home.

Violence begins when adults decide it is not a big deal to scream at each other in front of terrified, impressionable children. Violence takes hold when anger becomes physical, and yelling combines with slapping or shoving.

Violence becomes routine when a grandparent OKs it in a whisper -- "He's just excitable when he drinks" -- or a teacher does nothing when told again that a girl slipped on the stairs.

Children are terrified of violence, until they grow accustomed to it.

When that happens, you get more violence -- and pretty soon a house is firebombed twice and anything less than 300 murders a year in the city is labeled by some people as progress.

Mark Dennis Smith

Baltimore

To understand the cause of violence in our city, we need to look to the foundation of our society. Family life is in jeopardy, and no amount of high-tech police work can replace it.

Churches and civic groups should be encouraged to develop neighborhood programs. Schools should discuss the advantages of family strength.

And politically correct may have to be replaced with socially correct to rebuild or even save our society.

Charles L. Leight

Baltimore

It is abundantly clear that there is a gross failure in both the juvenile justice system and the adult system.

We see rap sheets for juveniles containing 15 and more offenses. Yet at no time do some of these offenders spend any time in detention.

What does that say? It says in a loud voice that the system is in dire need of change.

The police need more and better training in how to handle evidence so that defense attorneys on the lookout for errors that enable them to get their clients off won't have a leg to stand on.

Police also need to be better trained in how to present evidence to prosecutors to guarantee a conviction. And evidence needs to be better safeguarded.

Finally, sentencing needs to be swift and certain to be meaningful. Put criminals behind bars and make them serve their full sentences.

A life sentence should mean exactly that.

Leonard A. Gardner

Parkville

We must begin to put teeth into the laws and stop coddling criminals.

The good citizens of Baltimore are almost powerless to stem the violence in their city without a strong judicial system that will enforce existing laws and enact stronger ones when necessary.

Once proved guilty, a criminal should serve his or her time without possible parole.

The authorities should turn a deaf ear to complaints about conditions in prison. Prison is not a country club.

And if the crime calls for a death sentence, that's the price the offender must pay.

That would be a good start toward making Baltimore a safer city.

Elizabeth Myers

Baltimore

One of the primary responsibilities of government is the protection of its citizens.

The city judges, prosecutors and the state's Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services have failed miserably in this most important job.

What the city badly needs is: a governor who will appoint judges and department heads who have the community's interests at heart, not those of career criminals; a mayor who requires his police department to work closely with the state's attorney's office to ensure cases are brought to trial with a chance of obtaining a conviction; and a state's attorney who does his or her job instead of losing cases because of errors and omissions.

Jay H. Davis

Edgewood

Crime will not go away even if the state's attorney's office is properly funded, every police officer is well-trained and both departments cooperate fully.

To stop the plague of violence in Baltimore we must instead focus on providing our poorest and most needy citizens, and their children, with hope and opportunity.

And there is a lot that can be done to this end. A short list would include improving access to quality day care, especially through Head Start programs; becoming more aggressive in preventing lead poisoning; continuing to increase drug treatment slots; improving access to health care and mental health care; making treatment, not punishment, of youths and their families the goal of the juvenile justice system; and continuing the improvement of city schools.

When done well, all of these approaches help nurture children, improve parenting and provide hope and opportunity. But they cost money.

And as local, state and federal governments are forced to tighten their budgetary belts, there is a serious danger that these programs and many others may lose funding. These are cuts we cannot afford.

Nobody fails on purpose. But for anyone to succeed, somebody else must make an investment.

And if we truly want to decrease violence we must, as a society, be willing to invest in others.

Pasquale Bernardi

Baltimore

The writer is a pediatrician at the East Baltimore Medical Center.

Policing Baltimore's crime problem will not make it go away. Maryland is already over-policed. The fundamental problem with the Maryland criminal justice system lies within the parole system.

As was underscored by the murder of a Baltimore family allegedly committed by an individual under the supervision of the parole system, Maryland's parole supervision has become impotent.

Parole warrants are not entered into state systems in a timely manner, agents have no arrest powers and accountability for parolees is non-existent.

Maryland must scrap its antiquated system and replace it with one that enforces accountability and public safety. Parole agents must be granted arrest powers and given the tools to utilize those powers.

We can no longer expect parole agents to simply react to the arrest of parolees. Rather, we should expect them to enforce the technical conditions of parole (e.g., drug testing and employment) that often prevent offenders from returning to a criminal lifestyle.

Eric Webb

Glen Rock, Pa.

The writer is a parole officer in York County, Pa.

The way to fight violence is quite simple: Legalize drugs.

Implementing this policy may not be so simple, but the crime figures indicate that a drastic change in how we deal with drugs is needed.

Current methods are totally ineffective. Jails filled with drug dealers leave no room, money or personnel to work with the much more critical criminals, who therefore get back on the streets and resume their old habits.

Legalization would eliminate most pushers, which would reduce the number of addicts. And this would rid us of the crimes perpetrated to obtain big bucks for drugs.

Sonia Looban Greenspon

Baltimore

The single most important step the city could take to stop the violence is to get police officers out of cars and back to walking the streets.

In Baltimore, where rowhouses dominate the neighborhoods and alleys -- many of which are too narrow for a patrol car to navigate -- intersect the blocks, reliance on squad cars makes about as much sense as using skateboards to chase speeders.

Also, human nature being what it is, it takes a lot to motivate an officer to leave the air-conditioned comfort of his or her car to mingle with citizens.

At the very least, the regular presence of a beat cop could move a majority of illegal activity indoors and cut down on innocent bystanders killed or crippled by stray bullets.

As one who has worked in Baltimore's "questionable" neighborhoods, I have watched illegal activities carried out in the open -- in the faces of residents trying to live proper lives -- while police drive by, seemingly without seeing or caring.

Such travesties embolden the criminals. And blatant law-breaking crushes the morale of law-abiding citizens, making it easy for them to lose hope for improvement of their neighborhoods and lives and lose respect for the police.

Officers on the beat become trusted and valued members of the communities they serve, and make good people feel more comfortable and safe and bad ones feel the opposite.

Baltimore is essentially a 19th century city. A return to 19th century policing techniques, with the aid of 21st century technology, just makes good sense.

It might save some money. It would certainly save lives.

Joe Roman

Baltimore

Having read the powerful and chilling series "Justice Undone," I think The Sun itself could make a major contribution to city life and public safety by continuing to report on every homicide victim and the impact of that person's death on his or her survivors.

Like The New York Times' notable "Portraits of Grief" series profiling the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks, a brief, regular, Baltimore-specific "Portraits of Grief" feature would humanize the carnage on our streets.

And although it may seem as if the murders in Baltimore are largely happening among "those people," we must insist that violence and murder should not happen anywhere. We can prevent it there by preventing it everywhere. These things don't just happen to them there, but are happening to us here.

And until we mourn all of our losses, we can all become victims.

Daniel L. Buccino

Baltimore