I would like to thank The Ironton Tribune for its opinion regarding the animal abuse sentencing several weeks ago.

Although I thought the penalties were rather pathetic given the crime, the results certainly are consistent with those lax penalties continually doled out by the court.

The court lets repeat offenders go and law enforcement has to drag them back over and over and people wonder why law enforcement is so overworked.

This situation absolutely affects the community. It sends a clear message to criminals that nothing too bad is going to happen to them and it sends a message to good, hard-working people of the community that our county justice system cares more about the criminals than the community at large.

I don’t need a degree in criminal justice to know that this situation is not working.

I would like to know out of the outstanding warrants in this county, how many of those are for repeat offenders? Wouldn’t it be interesting to find out exactly what these criminals do for their “community service?” This isn’t punishment, it’s not even close.

Several months ago, Gov. Strickland’s office was investigating the revolving door for criminals in the Columbus area. Maybe the governor needs to investigate southern Ohio as well.