Jail time isn't deterring corruption

On Aug. 10, a front-page article about the Blagojevich trial titled "Is retrial worth it?" cited Cynthia Canary saying, "... If we do not pursue this, go forward and say how important this is to us, what's the deterrent (from corruption)?"

I couldn't help but ask Ms. Canary if there is any data that remotely suggests that spending millions on a retrial will serve as a deterrent toward government corruption. After all, don't we already have a governor in prison on corruption charges? It seems to me that we already have more people in jail per capita than any other nation in the civilized world. This doesn't seem to be a deterrent for crime.

Perhaps the money would be better spent by educating Illinois voters before our next election, or at least putting the money into our schools to raise smarter citizens that recognize and fire corrupt officials promptly.

Marion Beram

Buffalo Grove