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This was fascinating reading. I couldn't help but think of something my dad (who worked as a parole officer in Minnesota for a few years) told me when I read these two sections, though: Number 655321 posted:I was ready. I'd had enough and I'd learned my lesson. All I had to do was wait for my final W&W check (wants and warrants) and I was free to go begin home-incarceration a'la Martha Stewart, minus the ponies. Number 655321 posted:Sometimes, just sometimes, I want to go back. Here in the world it's all me. It's all under my control. Sometimes I'm lonely. I was somebody there. I was the smart guy on the yard. I was the one to talk to if you needed help, and could afford me. ...he said that the first question he asked new parolees when he met them was basically "I've never been in prison before, what was it like?" If the guy gave an answer that was any kind of variation of "It wasn't too bad," he was practically guaranteed to commit another offense and go back. He had this one guy who deliberately violated the terms of his parole in late December, and asked to be taken directly to the state prison instead of county jail...requiring a three-hour drive on snow-covered roads late at night...on December 24th...just because on Christmas morning, the state pen passed out gift baskets to the inmates. No poo poo, the guy opted to serve the remaining years of his sentence just to get a little box with some soap and some candy and maybe a box of cigarettes. Prison was basically the only place he'd ever felt comfortable in. But if he asked the "what was prison like?" question and the guy refused to answer it, except maybe to say that he never wanted to see another cop, judge, lawyer, prison guard, meter maid, or for that matter a goddamn parole officer ever again as long as he lived, that was a guy who would make it on the outside without any trouble. There were other ways to estimate a parolee's chances of turning his life around, but apparently that was the easiest and usually the most accurate. The sort of cases he dealt with generally split fairly cleanly along the "okay with prison: recidivist" and the "hated prison: rehabilitated" line.
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Dec 10, 2005 11:59
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 21:45 |
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