In
2013, one recommendation by a federal three-judge panel was to reduce the
population of elderly prisoners. The state responded with a plan
to consider parole for prisoners who were over the age of 60 and who had
served more than 25 years. Out came the metaphorical pitchforks,
torches, dogs, and public outrage. Prosecutors, victim's rights groups,
and assorted advocates for death in prison voiced their abhorrent shock,
fueling the fires. On March 12, 2016, the San Jose Mercury News article,
Parole
twist stuns, angers, captured Dr. Murdock's observation regarding society's
thirst for punishment. With a broad brush, the advocates for death
in prison attacked the wisdom of the federal judges and the state legislators,
who'd attempted to find rational ground.
The
driving force of today's prison agenda of financial exploitation is vengeance.
Thinking that more prison bunks will cure crime is like thinking that more
hospital beds will cure cancer. Long term incapacitation has to be
replaced with a true rehabilitation system. With today's ever-growing
social ills, people might be so blinded with a thirst for more punishment
that they can't see that the failure of current prison models might well
be society's canary in the mine.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
Here
are some thoughts about rehabilitation and recidivism. If I understand
things correctly, then most prisoners are members of gangs, and they spend
their resources fighting among themselves. Is it possible that, maybe,
prisoners don't necessarily have to be one another's enemies? Maybe
the authorities are the enemy, and their provocateurs are playing the gangs
against one another, as a strategy.
What
could prisoners accomplish if they spent their energy on something useful?
For example, what if they used that effort to promote and support halfway
houses? The halfway houses could be places where released prisoners
could live, eat, avoid bad influences, and look for jobs after being released
from prison. If prisoners did something like that, instead of fighting
among themselves, then rehabilitation might be something more than a pipe
dream.
Granted,
prisoners aren't in a position to change the world, but they might be able
to help themselves. I suggest that they try to stop wasting their
time and energy on brutalizing each other and start doing something constructive,
before
they leave prison, about what they're going to do after they leave
prison. Cura te ipsum — physician, heal thyself — might also come
to mean prisoner, rehabilitate thyself.
—editor
Letters to the Editor
Dear Frontiersman
Good
Afternoon. My name is [name omitted]. I am a "lifer"
serving 2 life sentences.
I
live with a roommate [name omitted]. He also receives your
newsletters on a regular basis. And I would like to request to also
be put on your mailing list as well.
Also,
if you do not mind, I would like to make a particular article of yours.
It is entitled "Material-Safety Data Sheet" and is about women. I
am unsure of its printed date, but think it was/is 1996 or 1998.
It's an old printing, I know — but if you still have one, I'd very much
enjoy having a copy of it....
—a prisoner
I
have to wonder about the courts. If they'll sentence a man to serve
two life sentences then, in a capital case, will they sentence a man to
be executed twice? Does any of it make any sense at all?
The
Material Safety Data Sheet appeared on page 4 of the February 1996 issue.
That was more than 20 years ago. You have a long memory.
—editor
Dear Friend, Sam....
I
have let many other prisoners here read your Frontiersman, so you may get
more mail soon.
I
hope "Matthew" didn't give you too much rain & you are not flooded...
—a prisoner
It's
been dry here.
—editor
Greetings Sam:
Been
a while since I wrote to you. Hope you are well. Very much
enjoyed the October Frontiersman. I was on hiatus in the writing
department but, have found a person to continue posting my stuff so the
inspiration has been rekindled. Will share with you once I get going
again.
Hope
you are doing good my friend.
—Sticky
A White Man's Notes
Sam Aurelius Milam III
• In
most conversations with a man, a woman's purpose is to explain to him that
he's wrong about something, and to correct him.
• When
talking to a woman, a man is well advised to keep Miranda v. Arizona
firmly in mind.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif)
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November 2016 |
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