Lifers, should they get parole?
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 Maryland. He was in the program
and was close to parole.
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 midnight and put them in shackles and took them
to various prisons where they were locked down for 36 hours with no explanation.
All of their property was left behind, many were not even fully
dressed.
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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