Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca was correct when he decided to place Paris Hilton on house arrest ("Hilton revolving door: Out of jail, into court," News, June 8).

Thinks to the failed war on drugs, jails and prisons - especially in California - are filled dangerously beyond capacity. Minorities and the poor have suffered the wrath of an unjust system for years.

Now that the system is inconveniencing wealthy white Americans such as Hilton, the media should focus on the dysfunctional system.

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In light of the developments in the Kathryn Johnston case, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington picked a bad time to advocate for trusting the police and to blame their reliance on informants on a "no snitch" campaign.

Using paid snitches instead of trained police appears to have more to do with circumventing constitutional rights than a "no snitch" movement. Cases chronicled on November.org -- the Web site of The November Coalition, a nonprofit organization working to end drug war injustice -- reveal that informants are an overused tool in the drug war, which, like the war on terror, is a major catastrophe. It has cultivated a cadre of dishonest snitches and overzealous cops resulting in a mounting distrust of police.

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