If you’re a bleeding heart liberal and I tell you a bold face lie that the Michigan Department of Corrections number one goal is to rehabilitate prisoners you’d probably believe me. If, on the other hand, you’re an ultra right wing conservative and I tell you that the MDOC’s main objective is to punish each and every inmate for their past criminal behavior, again, you’d probably take me for my word. But guess what? Neither statement is correct.Anyone believing in rehabilitation needs to take a long hard look at the people incarcerated. We’re not talking about puppies and sunshine here. We’re talking about pathological liars and thieves. I use the word "thieves" loosely—meaning killers (thieves for stealing lives), rapists (thieves for stealing sex), thugs (thieves for stealing someone’s health or destroying their property), and robbers (thieves for stealing money and personal belongings). Most prisoners, when opportunities arise, will prey on your weaknesses, and if they get caught doing something they shouldn’t, they’ll turn around and blame their victim. Here’s a simple example: An inmate in my classroom continuously turned up missing. I wrote two consecutive "Out of Place" tickets on him. "You lied on me," he said, "I came to school. I was in another classroom." He felt that it was okay to be where he shouldn’t have been because the other teacher never said anything to him. What kind of shit is that?
Let me get back on track. The main objective of the MDOC is to protect the public at all cost. Pacify these men, if you will, with basketball, softball, weight pit, floor hockey, Ping-Pong and many other recreational activities. Pacify these men with ESPN, ESPN2, FX, MTV, BET, VH1, Spike, SciFi, TNT,USA, A&E, CMT, Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic, The History Channel, and many other cable stations. (Yes, they have cable television. In fact, they get more channels then I do.) Lastly, wouldn’t you feel better knowing that some asswipe is off the streets doodling away his time in prison instead of looking for his next victim? I know I sure would.
12 comments:
Have you ever seen the movie "devils a four o'clock"?
My dad made me watch it as a kid to demonstrate a life lesson. You can't judge a persons character based only on thier bad deeds.
I thought the inmate benefit fund pays the cable bill and not the tax payer? Nice post. I like your definitions of thief. MW
Love the tone of this post, Jim! I agree -- the idea of rehab is completely crazy. I think of the footage of Richard Speck getting drunk and high and hanging with his special friend up until his death. Umm, didn't look like he was thinking about all those nurses he butchered or changing his ways. On the other hand, I'm glad his ass was locked up! I'd rather have him in there than looking for more victims. I just hope he didn't have cable in his day!
P.S. I think one of the best riffs (besides your own, of course!) on this whole subject is Richard Pryor talking about how afraid he was of the prisoners. He'd started out thinking men were wrongly accused and left glad for his life. It's near the end of "Live On Sunset Strip."
Excellent post on the den of thieves. Must suck at times to be a den father, surely.
Only exception might be "mandatory sentencing" for otherwise harmless people smoking a doobie or whatever. Any thoughts on decriminalizing certain lighter activities to keep room for violent thieves?
Thank you for not making it a black and white topic. Things are much more complex than people realize, oftening falling in the grey area in between.
hmm, yeah, your job scares me. Kudos to you for being able to do it. They'd probably make me cry everyday or I would be fired for trying to beat them up.
bird on a wire...
there is no black and white. Everything is grey... people would just like to believe different.
To bad that some of the staff are worse then the prisoners!
Jim, I forgot to mention, congrats on achieving over 4,000 comments to your blog!!!!!! --Bro, Ron
Jim, Please keep the ass wipes off the streets. They can doodle all they want in prison! I like the doodle you had on today's post. Maybe he/she whoever drew the picture can keep making doodles while locked up for good. Looks like Dr. Kevorkian will get out after almost 7 yrs time in the pen. I believe he should get out now, until June 07. --Bro, Ron
I'm going to agree with BOTW ... few things in this world are black and white, least of all crime and punishment. That said, my personal view is that I'd like to see these idiots fixed, or at least those with a reasonable chance of repair.
Post a Comment