What is the very worst prison imaginable? In today’s Thursday Thought quote, Pope John Paul II tells us.
“The worst prison would be a closed heart.” — Pope John Paul II
If we all had open hearts, would we even need prisons?
Tag Archive for prison
For Our Kids–Arm Everyone
I’m all for having armed guards in every school. In fact, they should be anywhere children gather. That includes churches, synagogues, temples, and mosques; Scout meetings; children’s birthday parties (disguise the guard as a cowboy); family reunions (never know when there will be a drive-by shooting); the zoo and children’s discovery museum; even political events where politicians kiss babies. And hire only babysitters who pack pistols. Nothing is too extreme to safeguard our children.
These should be trained guards, required to take a two-hour gun safety course. Some may be volunteers (I’m sure the NRA will recruit willing volunteers from their membership). But many will be professional peace officers, fire-fighters, and school principals.
Expensive? Not really. The Kids Are Our Concern (CROC) program can easily be paid for by money saved by revamping our penal system. First, execute all the roughly 725 people currently on Death Row–they’re taking up space and using too much court time and money on appeals. Maybe a few will be executed for a crime they didn’t commit, but if they’re on Death Row they must have done something else terrible enough to be taken out of society permanently. Then, within two weeks of having been sentenced to death, execute newly convicted felons. Next, sentence to death anyone using a gun that causes, intentionally or unintentionally, any kind of bodily harm (except to animals, of course). Think of all the money we’d save on housing and feeding these monsters AND we’d free up space in our prisons–maybe close down a few, thus saving even more money.
And all that savings would be earmarked for the CROC program.
I urge you to write your members of Congress (once they climb up from the bottom of the cliff) and urge that they adopt the CROC program at once!
[To my shocked readers: Remember that irony is one of the tools I use to make my point.]
Uncategorized
armed, babysitter, children, death, guards, gun, NRA, penalty, principle, prison, safety, school, train, volunteers
They Don’t Deserve Teeth
If you’ve ever had your insurance company deny paying for a procedure because it wasn’t “a medical necessity,” read this article. Apparently, Texas doesn’t understand that having no teeth is more than a chewing issue; it affects a person’s total health. Not that it matters because, after all, prisoners don’t deserve teeth.
Texas prisons often deny dentures to inmates with no teeth
Doing the Time for the Crime
You did the crime, now do the time! We’ve all heard this. St. Paul probably heard it , too, ‘way back in Biblical days, when he was jailed for his faith, although most people today are “in” for unholy acts. We call prisons “Correctional” and “Vocational” institutions. We want people to learn their lesson, get out, and “sin no more.” Meanwhile, they’re hardened by a solitary, harsh life, made worse by friends and family who forget about them.
But basic humanity calls us to remember all members of our community, to support and embrace even people who have made terrible mistakes and have tried to turn their lives around. You can help these people re-enter society as productive, law-abiding people simply by writing them, giving them a positive stake in the world they’ll be rejoining. I can tell you where to find names.
A little afraid? After research and years of writing prisoners, I’ve developed some simple guidelines to make writing a prisoner safe and comfortable for you. Let me know and I’ll send you that information.
Hearing Loss: A Double Imprisonment
Imagine having hearing problems. Now imagine you’re in prison. And there’s nothing to help you hear anything that’s going on. Which excludes you from much that keeps you sane and occupied during your incarceration, like activities, religious services, and vocational and rehabilitation programs and classes. AND endangers your relationships with non-incarcerated family and friends because you can’t talk to them on the phone.
That’s what’s been happening in South Carolina–and maybe elsewhere. The Dept. of Justice just reached an agreement with them in that the South Carolina Dept. of Corrections will now provide sign language interpreters and aids that will ensure that inmates can participate in the programs that will help rehabilitate them and get them ready for life outside. An important addition is telecommunications services that will let them communicate with the family and friends that they’ll return to.
If these are really departments of correction rather than departments of vengeance, inmates must be given the opportunity to reform–all inmates, including the hearing impaired.
Your Story
You may think of yourself as just a regular person. But, as today’s Thursday Thought quote points out, you may be vastly more important than that.
How Much of Life Changes
Imagine that you were on another planet for 44 years and then came back to earth. How much would have changed? How would you adapt?
This video, narrated by a man coming out of prison for 44 years, shows some of the changes you’d face as you tried to get on with your life. You’ll be surprised at some of the things that just happen when we aren’t noticing.
Profitable Prisons
Who has contributed in excess of $10 million in the last 16 years to politicians and spent almost $25 million to lobby for their interests? You may be surprised. They are GEO and Corrections Corporation of America, the two major for-profit prison companies in our country. Combined, private prison companies bring in $3.3 billion a year, all while the number of people in our prisons doubled in only ten years (2000-1010).
Contracts with such companies require that the government keep their prisons at least 90% full…some have a 100% provision. If not, taxpayers must pay for any empty beds. They own 9 out of the 10 immigrant detention centers and profit greatly from a Congressional mandate (that they lobbied for) that a minimum of 34,000 immigrants be detained daily (and the number is rising, even as the number of undocumented aliens has leveled off).
For more details, view this PBS video: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/419/video.html
Children in Adult Prisons
Kids in adult prisons? Yes, in 2013 there were 6,000+ in the U.S. These kids have few appropriate services or support as they experience sexual assault, beatings, and psychological torture. They are more likely to try suicide than kids detained in non-adult prisons, and once they get out are 77% more likely to commit crimes. This does NOT sound like a way to rehabilitate them–and they’re at the age when they are very able to change. Nor is it a way to get them ready for a productive adult life on the outside.
Read more at the Credo website. While you’re there, sign their petition to Attorney General Loretta Lynch, which simply reads, “The Department of Justice must immediately launch an investigation into the practice of trying and jailing children as adults.”
Charlston: Peaceful Closure
It’s amazing: families of the people shot to death in a Charlston, SC church, during Bible study, are saying they forgive Dylynn Roof, the killer. They refuse to let hatred breed more hatred.
Hearing their response to cold tragedy brought me to a realization–that forgiveness is the only way to reach the elusive “closure” that everybody talks about. Execution and life-imprisonment punish the perpetrator but are forms of vengeance. Anyone who has ever kept a grudge for awhile knows that “getting even” doesn’t make us feel a lot better. In fact, it gives more power to the person receiving our retribution, because of time and psychic energy we wasted on thinking about him and because now we, too, have done something negative. Besides, his wrong act and our reaction will haunt us forever as we call up memories about how he got his comeuppance. It’s a far cry from closure, which, by definition, brings an end, a conclusion to a situation. It’s even farther from what people expect closure to bring them, which is peace.
Forgiveness closes off the gut-churning blame process and it doesn’t involve a soul-shattering battle of negatives. Most importantly, it brings peace.
Forgiveness–what a concept.