Hi Robert, one part of what you wrote made me think of something I read. The part of it taking a very frogiving person to being ok with someone released that killed a loved one. Well, after looking up the article I realized it is rather about victims that survived the crime, but still I think it might be interesting. Its writte by Michelle Alexander recently in NYT, I give you the interesting passages:
Reckoning With Violence We must face violent crime honestly and courageously if we are ever to end mass incarceration and provide survivors what they truly want and need to heal.
(...)And yet, as Danielle Sered points out in her profoundly necessary book, “Until We Reckon,” if we fail to face violence in our communities honestly, courageously and with profound compassion for the survivors — many of whom are also perpetrators of harm — our nation will never break its addiction to caging human beings.
Fifty-four percent of the people currently held in state prisons have been convicted of a crime classified as violent. We will never slash our prison population by 50 percent — the goal of a number of current campaigns — much less get back to levels of incarceration that we had before the race to incarcerate began in the early 1980s, without addressing the one issue most reformers avoid: violence.
Reckoning with violence in a meaningful way does not mean “getting tough” in the way that phrase has been used for decades; nor does it mean being “smart on crime” to the extent that phrase has become shorthand for being “tough” on violent crime but “soft” on nonviolent crime — a formulation that continues to be embraced by some so-called “progressive prosecutors” today. As Ms. Sered explains in her book, drawing on her experience working with hundreds of survivors and perpetrators of violence in Brooklyn and the Bronx, imprisonment isn’t just an inadequate tool; it’s often enormously counterproductive — leaving survivors and their communities worse off.
Editors’ Picks The 87-Year-Old Hobbyist Who Measures the Royal Family’s Workload ‘Tell Your Husband to Leave Me Alone’ Her Husband Did the Unthinkable. This Is a Play About Everything After. Survivors themselves know this. That’s why fully 90 percent of survivors in New York City, when given the chance to choose whether they want the person who harmed them incarcerated or in a restorative justice process — one that offers support to survivors while empowering them to help decide how perpetrators of violence can repair the damage they’ve done — choose the latter and opt to use the services of Ms. Sered’s nonprofit organization, Common Justice.
Thank you so much for starting to write again. Your insight is invaluable and hopefully Governor Evers will make good (or at least try) on his prison reform initiatives. I visited my husband at Stanley last week and he said that he'd heard encouraging news. The wife of one of his unit acquaintenances said she had written to Governor Evers and he'd actually answered her!
I am especially sensitive to your blog about the tablets. Internet addiction is why my husband shares the 100 Corrections Drive address with you. We're all aware of the horrible ramifications of addiction--friends here in Hudson just lost a son and brother to drug addiction. What a waste of a young life to a drug overdose. But we don't understand the potential harm of internet addiction and the technology is so new there isn't research to validate concerns.
My husband was/is addicted to internet pornography and it led to illegal behavior. Being warehoused at Stanley with no programs/counseling is most certainly not the right answer to the ever growing problem. He sees the same failure you've pointed out about the drug treatment program offered in the state corrections system. It's a revolving door and does very little (if anything) to help the people caught in the drug addiction web.
So welcome back to blogging--I didn't realize you are writing again so it look a while to get caught up. I'm printing out your blogs to send to my husband because he can certainly relate to your thinking. Then I'm writing a letter to Tony Evers...with copies to my state senator and assemblyman.
Your blog is phenomenal! You immediately grabbed my attention from the very first post, and I've been binge-reading your works since. You are an extraordinary writer and I am super excited for the next continuation.
RSS
one part of what you wrote made me think of something I read. The part of it taking a very frogiving person to being ok with someone released that killed a loved one. Well, after looking up the article I realized it is rather about victims that survived the crime, but still I think it might be interesting. Its writte by Michelle Alexander recently in NYT, I give you the interesting passages:
Reckoning With Violence
We must face violent crime honestly and courageously if we are ever to end mass incarceration and provide survivors what they truly want and need to heal.
(...)And yet, as Danielle Sered points out in her profoundly necessary book, “Until We Reckon,” if we fail to face violence in our communities honestly, courageously and with profound compassion for the survivors — many of whom are also perpetrators of harm — our nation will never break its addiction to caging human beings.
Fifty-four percent of the people currently held in state prisons have been convicted of a crime classified as violent. We will never slash our prison population by 50 percent — the goal of a number of current campaigns — much less get back to levels of incarceration that we had before the race to incarcerate began in the early 1980s, without addressing the one issue most reformers avoid: violence.
Reckoning with violence in a meaningful way does not mean “getting tough” in the way that phrase has been used for decades; nor does it mean being “smart on crime” to the extent that phrase has become shorthand for being “tough” on violent crime but “soft” on nonviolent crime — a formulation that continues to be embraced by some so-called “progressive prosecutors” today. As Ms. Sered explains in her book, drawing on her experience working with hundreds of survivors and perpetrators of violence in Brooklyn and the Bronx, imprisonment isn’t just an inadequate tool; it’s often enormously counterproductive — leaving survivors and their communities worse off.
Editors’ Picks
The 87-Year-Old Hobbyist Who Measures the Royal Family’s Workload
‘Tell Your Husband to Leave Me Alone’
Her Husband Did the Unthinkable. This Is a Play About Everything After.
Survivors themselves know this. That’s why fully 90 percent of survivors in New York City, when given the chance to choose whether they want the person who harmed them incarcerated or in a restorative justice process — one that offers support to survivors while empowering them to help decide how perpetrators of violence can repair the damage they’ve done — choose the latter and opt to use the services of Ms. Sered’s nonprofit organization, Common Justice.
Thank you so much for starting to write again. Your insight is invaluable and hopefully Governor Evers will make good (or at least try) on his prison reform initiatives. I visited my husband at Stanley last week and he said that he'd heard encouraging news. The wife of one of his unit acquaintenances said she had written to Governor Evers and he'd actually answered her!
I am especially sensitive to your blog about the tablets. Internet addiction is why my husband shares the 100 Corrections Drive address with you. We're all aware of the horrible ramifications of addiction--friends here in Hudson just lost a son and brother to drug addiction. What a waste of a young life to a drug overdose. But we don't understand the potential harm of internet addiction and the technology is so new there isn't research to validate concerns.
My husband was/is addicted to internet pornography and it led to illegal behavior. Being warehoused at Stanley with no programs/counseling is most certainly not the right answer to the ever growing problem. He sees the same failure you've pointed out about the drug treatment program offered in the state corrections system. It's a revolving door and does very little (if anything) to help the people caught in the drug addiction web.
So welcome back to blogging--I didn't realize you are writing again so it look a while to get caught up. I'm printing out your blogs to send to my husband because he can certainly relate to your thinking. Then I'm writing a letter to Tony Evers...with copies to my state senator and assemblyman.
Stay strong.
Evy Nerbonne
Hudson, Wisconsin