For capital crimes there can be 3 sentences, Death, life without parole (still
a death sentence) or life. The last 2 can also be given to convicted
criminals for the heinous and violent crimes and "career criminals".
Most lifers committed their crimes when they were young. Many were
Vietnam Veterans who were subjected to the horrors of that war and coming home
to become classified by many as murderers and many were subjected to
discrimination that veterans of other wars did not find when they came home.
Many had Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
from their experiences in the war.
The thing to realize is that after 20 to 30 years these inmate are different
people then they were when they came to prison. All of the lifers I have
been in contact should be let out. I do not mean let them go now but give
them training programs and work release programs to prepare them for the
outside world.
One of my new friends is an example. He
would be very valuable outside the walls helping young people realize that the
life of crime is not the way to go. The following is a summary of what he
told me about an excellent program that was scraped in
154 "lifers" were placed in pre-release facilities throughout the
state. They were not surrounded by fences or walls and had no guard
towers. 54 gained work release status and had full time jobs. They
paid an average $100 a week in rent, taxes and were able to help their wives
and children. They also earned monthly leave where the
would have a weekend at home.
There were 2 incidents that stopped it. The first was an inmate who did
not come back from his weekend leave when he was supposed to but he was
returned without incident later. The other a man did not report for work
and murdered his estranged girl friend and then killed himself.
The program was discontinued. Guards and state troopers woke the
prisoners up shortly after
The governor told the parole board not to even look at applications for parole
for the lifers who were eligible for parole. From then on life meant life even if the inmate was eligible for parole.
Yes you do have people on parole committing crimes and returning to prison.
Prisoners are released to society without preparation for the outside
world. If we rehabilitated all of the prisoners before their release I am
willing to bet that few would return. In the case of the lifer's they are
not the same people who went in and most would make it on parole as long as
they were in a program like the above.
My friend is 51 years old and has been in prison for
31 years. Yes he did commit a crime and he
does not complain about being sent to prison. His complaint is that
enough is enough. He has been punished and he will be able to become a
contributing member of society. Now that the States are short of money
why not let those go who are no longer a threat to
society.
© Copyright 2002 Lee W. Gaylord
Inmates I know
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