The Baytown Sun from Baytown, Texas • Page 4

4-A THE BAYTOWN SUN Friday. July 19. 1985 DITORIAI Prisons aren't for vacations No matter what the state does to improve prison conditions, there will always be complaints from prisoners who feel they are being mistreated and that life behind bars is more miserable because no one cares about inmates' comfort, or lack of it. Despite a $173 million settlement of a long-standing lawsuit brought by Texas prison inmates that was designed to end overcrowding, conditions in most prison units are not likely to improve significantly in the foreseeable future. While the state is legally required to maintain humanitarian facilities for prisoners, it has no obligation to provide home-like amenities, as many prisoners seem to believe they have a right to enjoy.

There is a running argument in the prisons that all types of inmates should be allowed contact visits from friends as well as spouses and relatives. Some prisoners complain of a shortage of underwear shorts and towels. When they go to the shower, they say, they have to dry off with their shirts and put on dirty shorts. Many also complain about double-celling, which has been at the heart of the overcrowding issue in the Texas prison system for years. Because there are more inmates than cells, it is necessary to put two prisoners in a single cell.

It is understandable that most prisoners prefer privacy. It is also understandable that they like to be comfortable. No matter how much is spent on improving prisons, people who must spend time there won't like it. A sure-fire way to avoid prison inconveniences is to obey the law and stay outside the walls. Reagan recovers remarkably News about President Reagan's health was both good and bad during the past few days.

He is making an almost miraculous recovery for a person of his age from abdominal surgery during which a cancerous growth was removed. Based on medical facts about colon cancer and case records, the president has an excellent chance for full recovery, and there is no great likelihood the malignancy will recur or spread beyond the point of excision. This is great news for the Reagan family, the nation and the world, which has a tremendously important stake in the president's continued good health. He is an unusually tough individual, physically and mentally. He recovers rapidly from illness and injury, and does not seem affected by the great mental strain of his office.

The nation and the world were amazed by Reagan's resilience when he quickly recovered in 1981 from wounds inflicted by a would-be assassin that almost claimed his life. During periodic physicals since that unfortunate incident, he has been pronounced in excellent condition. The president followed legal procedure in temporarily assigning his powers to Vice President George Bush while he was incapacitated and reversed the process after regaining use of his faculties. Typical of what happens when the president is disabled or otherwise stopped from exercising power, world markets reacted swiftly with the dollar plummeting sharply after news of his malignancy was broadcast. President Reagan has been one of the major reasons for the dollar's strength and stability during the past five years.

Berry's World "My Bill is very bright but not so bright that he's been able to figure out how to work the VCR." IBaPtoton Editor and Publisher Assistant to Publisher Editor nnd Publisher. 1950 1974 Jo-ir. Mr Gary Dobhs EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT CIRCULATION Mnrnrjinq Editor News Editor Advertising Director Circulation Manager 'I 'K n' p. r' TMf YTOWN SUN T- Mf MBfl Of THf ASSOCIATfD ftfSS fi'J'flM i-" V'KTT Thr Jack Anderson HUD hard to figure out WASHINGTON When the Reagan administration announced last year there were at most 350,000 homeless persons in the United States, the figure was greeted with widespread skepticism. Earlier estimates had put the number of homeless as high as 3 million.

Shelter operators denounced the administration's figure as misleading a political statistic designed to justify cuts in federal funds for programs to aid the homeless. The Department of Housing and Urban Development, which commissioned the survey and came up with the disputed figure, insists to this day that its estimate is accurate. The survey was described by one congressional aide as "a contrived effort to demonstrate that there aren't as many homeless as everyone thinks." Just how contrived the effort was is made clear by Sharon Bell, a former employee of the private research firm that was paid $62.000 to conduct the telephone survey. The total cost of the report, however, was $138,000. Here's what she told our reporter Mark Woolley: She and other employees of Westat Inc.

of Rockville, called shelter operators in cities across the country. The interviewers asked how many persons stayed in the shelter on an average winter's night, and then asked the shelter operators to estimate how many homeless there were in their city or metropolitan area. "We were coached by HUD of- ficials on how to phrase our questions," Ms. Bell said. "We were never allowed to explain or define what we meant by city or metropolitan area.

If questioned by the shelter operator, we were only allowed to repeat our standard question." In fact, Ms. Bell said, "The shelter operators were only told that we were collecting information about shelters; they were never told we were counting heads." report's end result," Ms. Bell said. The principal flaw in the HUD survey was a statistical error a deliberate error, critics charge. The survey collected estimates of the homeless in 60 central cities, with a total population of 30 million.

But the figures for the core cities were applied to "metropolitan areas" having a total population of almost 90 million. In Hartford, for exam- The survey was described by one congressional aide as "a contrived effort to demonstrate that there aren't as many homeless as everyone thinks." She also charged that HUD officials were selective in the figures they put in their report, A number of cities whose estimates of the homeless were unpalatably high were simply left out, she said. "I remember calling Galveston (Texas) and the numbers they gave me didn't fit HUD's report, so they weren't used," Ms. Bell said. She said the inteviewers were told to jot down in the margin of the survey form any pertinent numbers provided by the shelter operators, but that these figures were never used.

"HUD wanted the report in two weeks, and they kept chan- inging the format of the survey," she said. "I feel used because of the 'S From Sun files County Judge C.H. Winfree died at home 40 years ago From The Bayown Sun files, this is the way it was 40 and 30 and 20 years ago: JULY 19,1945 Chambers County Judge C.H. "Cobb" Winfree, 48, dies at his home in Anahuac. Services will be tomorrow at Mont Belvieu Methodist Church and burial will be in the Cedar Bayou Masonic Cemetery.

Sgt. Andrew Morgan, son of Mr. and Mrs. Columbus Morgan of Goose Creek, is serving his 26th month overseas with the 1896th Engineer Aviation Battalion. He has made three am- pliibious landings with the division in the Admiralty Islands and was in the initial invasion of the Philippine campaign when he landed on Leyte.

Cpl. Leroy O'Sullivan, son of Mr. and Mrs. P.B. O'Sullian of Baytown.

is on his way home from Italy, where he has been serving with the 814th Engineers Aviation Battalion. Seventeen-year-old polio victim Earb Irvin Lyles of La Porte dies in a Houston hospital. Several weeks ago he had been seriously hurt in a car wreck on Hog Island. An Eagle Scout, he was active in Troop 90 in La Porte. He had planned to enroll at Texas in the fall.

JULY 19,1955 A.D. Williams, 61. died early today. Nora Becktold, taxi driver for Tex Martin, is reunited with her long-lost sister in Louisiana. The new fire station on Market Street will result in lower insurance rates for Baytown, says Fire Chief Art Lintelman.

JULY 19,1965 Capt. Daniel Heintschel is serving with the 20th Weather Squadron in Okinawa. He is an honor graduate in meteorology at Texas The Baytown Sun will be moving to its new home on Memorial Drive in a few days. The newspaper will continue to be printed at the location at Ashbel Pearce until the new press arrives. Today in history MHICY By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Today is Friday, July 19, the 200th day of 1985.

There are 165 days left in the year. Today's highlight in history: On July 19, 1848, a pioneer women's rights convention called by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia C. Mott convened in Seneca Falls, N.Y. On this date: In 1553, 15-year-old Lady Jane Grey was deposed as Queen of England after claiming the crown for nine days. King Henry VIll's daughter Mary was proclaimed Queen.

In 1870, the Franco-Prussian warbegan. In 1943, allied air forces raided Rome during the Second World War. Bible Verse For the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Isaiah 60:20 pie, HUD got estimates on the number of homeless in the city alone (population: and applied it to the entire metropolitan area (population: This method was used in all 60 cities, and the deceptive results were then extrapolated to give a nationwide figure of 250,000 to 350,000. Some shelter operators have charged that.

HUD never used the estimates they provided. For example, Valerie Dionne- Lanier, who runs a shelter for homeless women in Boston, said: "We estimate between 5,000 and 10,000 homeless in this city. HUD came up with 2.700 after we gave them our figures." Subcommittees headed by Reps. Ted Weiss, and Henry Gonzales, D-Texas, are looking into the methods used by HUD in its survey. FAIR EXCHANGE: A unique effort at mutual understanding has been launched by the B'nai B'rith Youth Organization with help from the U.S.

Information Agency and the West German government. Fifteen Jewish teenagers from Michigan are now in Frankfurt for a three- week stay with German families with teenage children. The Americans will take part in seminars on recent German politics and history, Jews' contributions to Frankfurt, Germans' contributions to the United States, and the American Jewish community's perception of Germany since the Holocaust. On July 30, the Frankfurt teenagers will come to Michigan for a three-week visit. MINI-EDITORIAL: Judicial robes do not a Solomon make.

Richard Neely, until recently chief justice of the West Virginia Surpreme Court, fired his secretary because she refused to baby-sit at the judge's home. Then he hired a new secretary who was willing to take on the baby-sitting job as well. But by this time, feminist organizations had raised such a hue and cry that hizzoner thought better of it. Neely subsequently stepped down as chief justice, but he still sits on the state's high court. Women's groups are demanding that he resign, and we second the motion.

Jack Anderson is a columnist Unilfd Feature Syndicate Tom Tiede 34-year-old man learns to read WASHINGTON When I first met Charlie he said he was going to murder me. I was building a home in Virginia then. Charlie was a part-time carpenter, and 1 employed him to guide me through the complex mysteries of ceiling joists and foundation plates. The threat occurred when I gave him his pay. I wrote a check for the amount, but he said he wanted cash.

When I wondered why. he hemmed and hawed, stammered, tried to change the subject, and kicked the ground with his boot. Finally, he said that, well, he had trouble making out words and figures. "You mean you can't read 0 1 asked. "If you tell anyone." he replied.

"I'll murder you." We laughed. But not very much. Charlie was 3-1, and illiteracy was the hidden humiliation of his life. He said he had gone to school as a child, but he was always the dunce of his class; he therefore quit in frustration after six years of it. and ran off to work with his hands instead of his head.

He said he had learned to print his first name, painfully. And he could count to 100 over and over. Otherwise, he was functionally illiterate. He could not read a traffic sign, he could not decode a newspaper headline, and he could not endorse a check without fear of revealing his secret. "I don't let anyone know," he said.

"I'm a grown man. and it ain't right. I remember they used to call me 'Lump' when I was a kid. I don't want to go through all that again. If somebody gives me something to read, or if I got to sign my name to a paper, I just find some good way to get out of it." Charlie said some of the good ways were clever.

Others were simply very sad. He said he got a drivers license by faking a broken writing hand, and taking the test orally, and he used to tell his kids, when they wanted him to read a story, that, um, his eyes hurt from working in the sunshine all day. Once, he recalled, he had to quit a job for the lying. His boss had asked him to fill out a form on the spot. "I was trapped," Charlie said, "I started to sweat, because I was scared.

Then I got angry at the poor guy; I said he was badgering me, and I wouldn't take it, and I picked up my tools and left." Charlie said he was ashamed of himself then. And he'd since tried to work mostly alone. "I don't take no job I ain't done before." he went on, "because I can't read new instructions. And 1 don't take payments by check, either, because I don't like to have my wife sign my name on the back." So I tore his check in half. But I gave him a proposition instead of the cash he requested.

I said 1 would teach him to read, in return for some labor now and then. He protested that he was too dumb to learn, and too old. but. alas, he probably wouldn't', get anything out of me if hel didn't take the offer. We started that summer.

came over a couple of nights week, and we set up class by the Chesapeake Bay. I told him that I would teach him the way 1 learned myself, using memory and reptition. I said it wasn't" scientific, but even today it is thel way most people in the world; learn words. He rebelled immediately. He; did not want to learn the alpha- bet in sing-song: "ABCDEFG, HUKLMNOP.

QRSTU V.WX and and He said it; was sissy. I said pretend to be. Michael Jackson. Without the; fleur d'epaule, of course. That's'; French.

I chuckled. One guage at a time, he Good point. took him an unexpected- eternity to learn the letters. He canceled more classes than he- kept. And he said his eyes hurt I from working in the sunshine all; day.

But he had to show up' periodically to do odd jobs, and would force him thence to start- singing. He didn't memorize the" alphabet until autumn. And the words themselves I were even harder. We spent; many sessions discussing more; phootball than philology. But typed out words that were fol-; lowed by representative draw-- ings, and, after a while, learned that the letters CA3C really looked like the animate "Hey," he said, "when do we get; to WOMEN?" So we persevered.

At fewer." syllables, to be sure. began to read from an Clemen-; tary school text that I borrowed from the library, and he went on to write short, simple sentences. In time, he even opened a account and reminded me, the" ingrate, that I still owned the check I destroyed. Appropriately, class this spring. Charlie graduated with a degree in determination; as well as chutzpah.

I gave him dictionary and a thesaurus, at his insistence, a book by H.G.^ Wells. The book is the first; Charlie has ever owned. Tom is a columnist for Nrwsfwptr priw Association.