Entries from February 1, 2008 - March 1, 2008
1 in 100 Adults
kmsqrd
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This number is completely sickening. 1 out of every 100 American adults is currently incarcerated [Pew Center via Routers]. I graduated high school with approximately four hundred and fifty other people. As many as five of them is likely to be serving time in jail. What has this country become? When did those without compassion become the loudest voices? What happened to the idea of providing a place for rehabilitation?
It's fairly easy to understand. We object to having more 'our' money spent to provide the men and women in the criminal justice system with programs that will help keep them from returning to jail. As important, we don't want to hire them. I get that they screwed up royally (as Mom would say). I understand that it seems like we're pouring money down an open drain. Hiring those who've committed a crime gives me pause, and I don't even hire and fire people around here.
The question then becomes, how do we change the attitudes outside of prisons to help those that are inside so we can stop the cycle? As I ask that, there's a show that ran on Animal Planet recently about prison dogs and how they help the whole prison population. Of course, we're talking about Larry, Curly and Moe here - not the big German Shepherd guard dogs. In some prisons inmates help to socialize dogs that were previously unadoptable, in others they complete puppy training for dogs that will be come service dogs. In general, the programs helped both the dogs and the prisoners.
There has to be something better than what we're doing now. Possibly many somethings. One in one-hundred adults is just way too many.
It's fairly easy to understand. We object to having more 'our' money spent to provide the men and women in the criminal justice system with programs that will help keep them from returning to jail. As important, we don't want to hire them. I get that they screwed up royally (as Mom would say). I understand that it seems like we're pouring money down an open drain. Hiring those who've committed a crime gives me pause, and I don't even hire and fire people around here.
The question then becomes, how do we change the attitudes outside of prisons to help those that are inside so we can stop the cycle? As I ask that, there's a show that ran on Animal Planet recently about prison dogs and how they help the whole prison population. Of course, we're talking about Larry, Curly and Moe here - not the big German Shepherd guard dogs. In some prisons inmates help to socialize dogs that were previously unadoptable, in others they complete puppy training for dogs that will be come service dogs. In general, the programs helped both the dogs and the prisoners.
There has to be something better than what we're doing now. Possibly many somethings. One in one-hundred adults is just way too many.
Months of Silence
Months have passed since I felt like writing. Weeks have passed since I had thoughts more complex than my stomach hurts. Days have passed since I'd last thought of him. (Ha, you didn't know there was a him, did you?) Hours have passed since he surfaced somewhere near the Iraqi border.
I slept better last night than I'd slept in months. It amazes me just how much knowing someone I've only really shared electrons with had me tied up in knots for so long. It doesn't surprise me how clueless I was about the whole thing. Some things take a long time to change. Me being able to identify what's going on with my feelings may just take a lifetime.
I slept better last night than I'd slept in months. It amazes me just how much knowing someone I've only really shared electrons with had me tied up in knots for so long. It doesn't surprise me how clueless I was about the whole thing. Some things take a long time to change. Me being able to identify what's going on with my feelings may just take a lifetime.
