Saturday, September 24, 2016

Punishment... why and for how long?

What if you made a mistake and someone rubbed your nose in it every day..... for the rest of your life?

So many people who are trying to get their life back on track are tripped up by the very system they are told is there to help them. I know so many on parole and probation who say their parole officer changes the rules regularly, put obstacles in their way to trip them up. They tell me, they believe it is to make them fail so it looks like the officer is doing their job.
Does the system treat everyone one the same, unfairly.... because there are so many who abuse the system, lie, cheat and steal at every turn, tainting the officers and making them cold and callus. Are the officers so overloaded they have to treat everyone as a number not a person with potential?
So what happens to those who are really trying, to do the right thing, turn their mistakes into positives. Some just give up, and say " what's the use" and they go back to their old ways and just waits for the enviable. Back to prison.
Does the system reward the wrong behavior from the officers. Does it reward them for how many possible crimes they may have prevented... I don't know how they are rewarded, but I know the system is broken. Maybe it should reward them for how many people they get back on track and not back in jail... Why do 76% end up back in jail?
Prisons and Parole/Probation unions employ a lot of people and have a lot of money to lobby our elected officials.
Are we just Feeding the beast...

Monday, September 19, 2016

Life of a Felon...

Have you ever thought about what happens to someone who has been arrested and charged with a felony?  What if that felony was because of multiple arrest for drug use or stealing to support their drug use?

Here is the problem, there are limited options for treatment and so without proper treatment, they relapse 80% of the time and end up becoming a habitual drug users and then habitual offenders.  What usually happens is they are arrested multiple times, and finally charged with a felony and sent to prison and may even go through some form of treatment while in prison.  Once they are released from prison they have a parole officer, a curfew and fines and fees to pay.  That’s where the problem really begins.  There are not many employers who will hire a felon, if you apply for a job and are truthful and put on the application you have a felony, that application goes to the bottom of the pile.  In addition, how many landlords will rent to a felon?  So they end up sleeping on couches wherever they can until they wear out their welcome and they end up on the streets selling drugs again trying to support themselves.  On top of all this they have had to learn to be a thug just to survive in prison.  What do you think happens to a nice guy in prison…?  Yes, that’s right.

Now that I have painted part of the picture here is what happens to many.  According to government statistics 76% of those on parole end up back in jail within five years.  While in jail they get accustomed to prison life and many find that because they have a felony prison life is easier than life on the outside. 

They used to say prison is to reform criminal behavior but in most cases it makes things worse.  Children lose their parent, parents lose their children, wives lose their husbands.  There are too many single moms struggling to get by.  No one wins.

Think about it, to protect us from these so called "bad guys" we have made the problem worse.  They come out worse than they went in, they can’t get a job, their family doesn’t trust them and they have nowhere to live.  How do you think they now see themselves now?  They have taken ownership of every label that society has given them and wear it like armor.  You can’t hurt them anymore than they have been hurt already, yeah I know, most of it was caused by what they did, but now they have nothing to lose. 

We need more treatment, not more prison guards.   Treatment needs to include a complete education; job skills, how keep a job, coping skills, character building and conflict resolution. We need to teach them how to survive in the real world and in the workplace. If you just toss them back into situations where they will use the same skills they have always used, which they are quite skilled at and they will fail. 



We need to help them take off that mask they have put on to protect themselves.  Remember when they were children… They didn’t have to wear a mask.