There's one way to determine if ending cash bond is working

After reading the letter about the Pretrial Fairness Act, I feel compelled to offer a different perspective. As a retired Cook County correctional officer, I spent 28 years watching the cash bond system up close and personal.

While the writers make some excellent points, they have omitted one critical statistic: What percentage of people released without a cash bond are showing up for their court date?

The bottom line is, what good is the new no-cash-bond system if no one shows up to answer the charges against them? There is no accountability and that should be the cornerstone of any system.

Tom Grabowski, Romeoville

DePaul men’s basketball a big disappointment

There has been a good amount of press lately about the admirable feats of Caitlin Clark, the phenom basketball player from Iowa. Unfortunately, the attention she has rightly garnered has overshadowed one of the real NCAA stories in town — the miserable plight of the DePaul men’s basketball program.

As a DePaul alumni, I have long given up on them ever being a top team again, like back in their heydays. I had reset my sights on the program getting back to respectability, but that also appears to be a pipe dream. Not only are they an embarrassment to the alumni, they are an embarrassment to Chicago. Once a proud mecca of college basketball, DePaul is winless in the Big East this year and continues to maintain their status as the doormat of the conference.

With no recovery in sight, I think it’s time for DePaul to tap out of trying to compete with the big boys of the NCAA and think about creating their own conference with comparable teams like the Washington Generals and nine old guys from my gym.

Steve Fortuna, Naperville

Drawbacks to going all-electric

I ask Pastor Scott Onque, who wrote “Going electric in new buildings is a matter of justice,” what are the interior dimensions and volume of his church? Also, what about windows, insulation, exterior construction, etc.?

The concern for your flock is admirable, but what about their ability to pay their electric or water bills? Everything underground prevents the placement of gas piping, so there’s the push to electrify, while oil is still being used to heat many buildings. Relative to the East Coast, they’ve had spectacular blackouts.

We’re already totally dependent on electricity, so this plan will make the situation worse. Present technology limits electric heating to slightly above zero, so supplemental gas heat must be provided to provide comfort from the polar vortex.

I don’t know where the stated projected savings come from, but nowhere does the pastor consider the costs of expanding electrical delivery and the capability of the grid to sustain it. Finally, the gas we no longer use along with coal, will still be needed to power generating stations because of insufficient renewables.

Fred J. Wittenberg, Evanston