Savings Havens

To the Editors:

The day your issue [June 8] arrived, I received a notice from my bank saying my savings account will carry a service charge of $3 if the balance is less than $200 every quarter.

Your article is right. It doesn't pay to save.

David A. Mitchell

Oakland, Calif.

After reading your issue concerning savings, I decided to open an account at a bank near my home. I was surprised to learn that $15 was not enough. Instead of $15, I needed a minimum of $100! What's a child of eleven to do?

Julie Anne Hawkins

Lake Mary, Fla.

We have NOW accounts, six-month certificates and money-market certificates. These forms of savings are good investments until the end of the tax year, when we must add the interest from them to our total earnings. It turns out that often we are being penalized for trying to save for our future years.

Mr. and Mrs. Howard F. Jones

West Chester, Pa.

Consumers are now reaping the benefits of the money-market funds, but what effect is that having on the consumer's ability to borrow money to buy, refinance or build a house? For years the savings and loan institutions have provided most of the money for housing. However, the continued threat from the new funds has all but ruined the thrift industry, thus eliminating for millions of Americans the opportunity to participate in the real estate market.

Grayson L. Carter

Pasadena, Calif.

It has become increasingly difficult to sock away any money after federal, state and local taxes have gobbled up the paychecks. But to be further taxed on the interest received from money that is put away for the future is certainly unjust.

Marcia E. Fach

Nashville

I wonder about the benefit of high interest rates. Admittedly, we can place our money in ready asset accounts and garner more interest. Meanwhile, we cannot afford to purchase a home because of the 16.5% prevailing mortgage rate.

Robert C. McNally

Summit, N.J.

Devout Classrooms

In your story about the proliferation of Christian schools [June 8], I was saddened by the comment made by Loralea Rushton, who teaches her own children at home. She said, "The girls like to be with other children, but they don't want to be with children who are taught contrary to our thinking."

I have three children of similar ages, and one of the most important things I have taught them is that different is not necessarily wrong.

Jocelyne P. Duntley

Lyons, N. Y.

It is not surprising that Christian schools show impressive results. Any school with highly motivated students and 15-to-1 pupil-teacher ratios would show the same. There is no need to ascribe their success to the moralistic dogma and right-wing politics these institutions espouse.

Garth Ware

Beaufort, N.C.

In public school I was exposed to drugs, alcohol, violence and teen-age sex. I also acquired an understanding of the social tensions that breed these conditions. By removing students from the realm of the dopeheads and potheads referred to by Warren Rushton of the Rushtons' Basement School, children in Christian schools grow up ignorant of our social ills. Consequently, they fear society's problems rather than understand them and, thus, are unable to help solve them.

Kelly Moore

Johnson City, Tenn.

Intolerance appears to be the most fervently taught subject in Christian schools. I attended Catholic schools where free expression was not only allowed but was encouraged. Our lessons were not used to justify our beliefs; our faith helped us better understand what we learned.

Deborah L. Bowman

Hampton, Ga.

Legal Loophole

It is unbelievable that a judge would let an admitted murderer out of jail because he believes the murderer's lawyer gave him poor advice [June 8]. The fact remains that the murderer is a murderer.

Milton E. Block Cherry Hill, N.J.

Angel Claudio is a lucky young man. The legal system, which has become a system of technicalities, works for him and not for justice. What more does the system need than a confession and some evidence to back up the case? The law has become a game between lawyers.

Walter Sabin

Lewisburg, W. Va.

Some criminal law experts may believe that Judge Kenneth Browne was wrong to exclude a confession obtained as a result of the incompetence of the defendant's lawyer. Others will applaud that ruling, which enforces the principle that every defendant in a serious criminal case has a right to a competent lawyer.

Our legal system does not and cannot provide qualified representation to poor and working-class defendants. Lawyers are always outraged when someone --especially a judge--reveals that the game is fixed.

Richard E. Rubenstein

Dean for Academic Affairs

Antioch School of Law

Washington, D.C.

Behind Bars

After reading your article on prison rioting [June 8], I found myself feeling angry and confused. How can prisoners who treat one another so inhumanely through gang rapes, stabbings and beatings demand humane treatment from prison officials and society?

Nancy Gardner

Dayton

TIME's description of America's prisons is true. Still, who really cares? Most prisoners would like to learn to be worthwhile citizens. But in the process, treat us as people and not as sardines!

Robert Wechsler #147439

Maryland Penitentiary

Baltimore

Your picture of the overcrowded cell in the Illinois Correctional Center looked great to me. I spent two years living in a cramped berthing area on board a Coast Guard cutter. There was nothing we could do to change our conditions. We didn't dare riot.

Michael K. Hurley

Severn, Md.

As a lifer I appreciated your observations in "The Prison Nightmare." The public must realize that prison is an institution of great social reform that has turned into a monster. The mentality that says lock 'em up and throw away the key is producing overcrowded conditions that inevitably explode.

Repeaters are often the ones who are released, while longtimers who are good parole risks remain caged for years. Most inmates serving lengthy sentences are rational and responsible individuals who would function very well in a halfway-house setting.

Mary Glover #145435

Huron Valley Women's Facility

Ypsilanti, Mich.

Gaddafi's Views

Colonel Gaddafi's comments on international terrorism are absurd. He is a prime example of one who exploits troubled fellow African nations to justify his expansionism. I was a resident in N'Djamena, Chad, until February 1979, when I was forced to leave. As I followed the events in Chad, I was amazed by Gaddafi's intervention and changing support for the various factions.

Linda Martina

Los Gatos, Calif.

Troubled Teens

I valued your article "Getting Tough with Teens" [June 8]. As a ninth-grade English teacher, I see my students five hours a week, compared with the 133 hours when the teen-ager is beyond the authority of the school. I'm pleased that Toughlove recognizes some parental responsibility for the remainder of my students' time.

(Mrs.) Lynn Kinikin

San Dimas, Calif.

As a school psychologist, I have learned that when you treat children like fools, that's how they will behave. When treated like thinking and feeling humans, they will try to live up to that. Parents would do well to raise their support and lower their demands; children have never been damaged by being truly loved.

Maya Laemmel Los Angeles

Lots of Aloha

As a lifelong Hawaii resident, I read with concern your article "We've Lost the 'Aloha' Feeling" [June 1]. As you reported, two teenagers recently hijacked a busload of Japanese visitors. However, you failed to mention that the community contributed more than $22,000 to assist the victims, a sum twice that lost in the robbery. Later, when the stolen cash and valuables were returned, the Japanese donated the money to a special fund to assist visitors who become victims. No, the aloha feeling has not been lost.

W. Dudley Child Jr.

Honolulu

Mission Impossible

Your story about possible P.O.W.s in Laos [June 1] describes retired Lieut. Colonel James ("Bo") Gritz as "a former Army public affairs officer who served in Viet Nam." The implication is that his service consisted of briefing the press in Saigon, and that he has no business now leading commandos into Laos.

In fact, Gritz was an almost legendary Special Forces combat soldier. There is probably no one in America more qualified than Gritz to undertake the kind of mission the P.O.W. families had in mind.

Russell B. Adams Jr.

McLean, Va.

Lefever Exit

In the article on the confirmation hearings of Ernest Lefever [June 1] you falsely state that "Lefever's think tank accepted at least $25,000 from the Nestle company after commissioning a study that turned out to support Nestle's marketing of infant formula in developing countries." There is no such study. Although I agreed to write a monograph for Lefever. I have not done the study nor have I received a penny for it.

Herman Nickel

Board of Editors, FORTUNE

Washington, D.C.

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