Reply #108: Alright, I just don't understand. As a former inmate who was rehabilitated by our prison system

[NuclearDem]

I know how important a good, healthy environment is to restoring the average convict to a productive member of society.

For the record, in general population, yes, there were plenty of people who were in for violent crimes, and people who should stay in for a very long time. But there were plenty of people who were in there for things as simple as writing bad checks and possession of marijuana. In some cases, they were people in there who shouldn't have been in in the first place; one person whose wife lied about him violating a restraining order, another for a DUI with a BAC of .081, and others for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people.

And a lot of those people spent their days...playing chess. Reading books. Watching TV. Playing cards. Not shanking their fellow inmates. Not raping others.

After a week, I transferred to one of the prison faith-based rehabilitation programs; and I was lucky. A lot of people apply for it, but not a lot get it. That program was packed; there were a lot of people in there who had committed violent crimes in the past, but after they'd spent a while in prison and had time to think about what they'd done, their only goal at that point was to make themselves better--they wanted to learn a trade, learn how to be a productive member of society, go through counseling to be better fathers, and just better themselves.

One of the other inmates I got close to in that program was doing time 4 years for armed robbery and assault; before he was sent to prison, he was an awful person. He mistreated his wife and his kids, couldn't hold a job, and was involved with some criminal elements in the city. I met him just as he was starting his third year...and he said thanks to the prison's rehab programs, the support of fellow inmates who were all working to get better, and encouragement from good friends on the outside, he was truly repentant for what he'd done. According to the other people in the program, he used to cry at night thinking of all the people he'd hurt...and he made it his goal in life to earn society's forgiveness and be a better person.

That man took me in, mentored me during my time, and helped me adjust, and realize my problems and what I needed to do to fix them. He and all the other people in that program were living proof that prisoners, even the violent ones, can have a change of heart and want to be better.

So shame on all of the DUers who write them all off as incurable savages who deserve their human rights taken away because they're behind bars. Nothing but fucking shame. One of the things those convicts, the ones in the program, have over all of the people on the outside who want them treated like slaves and animals is that they learned this: forgiveness is a powerful thing, and a healing tool that can help both the victim and the criminal become better people.