Law Offices of Bryan Gaynor
Arcata, CA 95521

January 19, 1994

National Appeals Board Analyst
United States Parole Commission
Park Place Bldg.
5550 Friendship Blvd.
Chevy Chase, MD 20815

Re: Veronza Bowers, Jr.
Application for Parole

Dear Sir or Madam:

This letter is respectfully submitted to you in support of Mr. Veronza Bowers' application for parole which is to be heardby you on January 26, 1994.

I am an attorney admitted to practice in the State of California and I am currently employed as the city attorney for the City of Arcata. I have been in practice and an active member of the state bar for over twenty years. Prior to becoming the Arcata city attorney, I represented a number criminal defendants who, like Mr. Bowers, faced lengthy prison terms, although primarily in state facilities. Sadly, all too many of my former clients deteriorated significantly as human beings during the period of their incarceration. As a result, their adjustment after releaseoften reflected the same poor adaptation to prison life.

I have been aware of Mr. Bowers situation as a federal prisoner for a number of years and have closely followed and admired his remarkably successful adaptation to prison life. Unlike so many of my former clients, Mr. Bowers has transformed his prison time into a positive experience not only for himself but for otherinmates as well.

As crime continues to undermine our society and, in particular our cities, I, like many public servants, have become convinced that harsher sentences and more draconian penal measures are not the solution to the problem. Unfortunately, all too often prisons have become proving grounds in which those inmates with the greatest propensity for violence and/or recidivism enjoy the highest status. Mr. Bowers has demonstrated the courage and perseverance to move decisively in the opposite direction: He has become a role modelfor non-violence and self-actualization within the prison system.

By this letter I do not wish in any manner to understate the seriousness of the crime for which Mr. Bowers was convicted in
1974. Rather the purpose of this letter is to suggest that by granting his parole request you will be making a statement to other prisoners that rehabilitation is possible within the federal prison system as proven by Mr. Bowers exemplary record over the last 15 years. More importantly, you will be emphatically demonstrating that where rehabilitation has occurred, as it clearly has here,an appropriate institutional response will occur.

I want to point out that neither Mr. Bowers nor any member of his family nor any attorney representing him has requested that I write this letter. I have never before written a letter in support of any other prisoner's application for parole. I write this letter solely on the basis of my conviction that Mr. Bowers has made significant and remarkable progress on the road to becominga fully rehabilitated member of society.

As an ever increasing number of our citizens bear the stigma of exfelon it is critical that those who have made significant progress toward rehabilitation be given appropriate considerationfor early parole. I urge you to do so in the case of Mr. Bowers.