Dan Rodricks' column ("Gun control, yes, and therapy, not jail," March 3) on the 35-year prison sentence given the 15-year-old Perry Hall High School student was right on. So was the letter from Ann Phillips ("Perry Hall shooter's sentence is a travesty," March 1).

When you are an adolescent, you can not drink or vote. You can't drink at 18 years of age because you are not considered mature enough to handle it. You can't drive until you are 16 years old. But you can enlist in the U.S. Army when you are 18 years old and "adult."

To sentence Robert Gladden, who was 15 years old at the time of the shooting, to 35 years in prison is insane and cruel. People who committed murder often get off lighter. The boy needs a lot of serious therapy in a juvenile institution, not adult prison where he will rot away.

What was Judge Robert Cahill thinking? Shame on him!

Marion Brecht, Towson
