Reply ID: Vnhy

Jan. 19, 2015: 10:30am: Listening to: My Curse By: Killswitch Engage

Hi Maggie, Thank you fro writing. I must say I liked your response. People tend to believe that even if a mom has 2-3 jobs, she is still supposed to be there to raise her kids. How can she when she has to work 18 hours a day to make ends meet? It is a very fine lind, & as you said, a vicious circle of life. Even if we don't focus on Philly, Lets focus on the entire state. How do you curb the gang violence? You'll never end it, but how do you slow it down? How do you lower the crime rate, the prison population, how do you teach the youth of today that prison is not a place of honor, not a place to go & feel like you are a man. I feel like a 38 year old failure. Kids today don't care about consequences. They think prison is fun & cool.

You are right, the lack of safety net after prison is a major part of why people come back. They go home, have no job skills, they have no way to get help. What does one do when they get out, they have no money, nowhere to go, but they are on parole, they come rightback. We get paid 19cents an hour, how is one ever supposed to save any money for the day they are released from prison? It's not possible. But when no one seems to care, what are the options? You sound like you're pretty smart & like you understand this, if we had people like this, we'd have more solutions. What politician goes out & asks, how can we help? I've never seen one in my lifetime. I'm sure 1 or 2 have, but not to my knowledge. It takes us, society, in prison & out of prison to stand up & say how can we change this, how can we make things better? Does our government care? I don't believe so. We have countless of people homeless & living on the streets, & OBAMA wants to change the immigration laws, allow more people into this country but we can't even help the ones we have now. The U.S.A gives away hundreds of billions of dollars away in foreign aid but this same government wont even give a homeless man a hot meal. I've been homeless before so i know. I had to steal to eat. But that's besides the point. When will people start caring enough to want to see change? I want to see these politicians removed from office & have them replaced with regular people who have no political motives at all, just the desire to help people change their lives for the better.

I've spent over half my life behind bars. How would I function if I got out tomorrow? I'm a hard worker, I like to work, but I have no skills. I would rely on family & friends to help me find a temp agency job that could teach me some skills. If we all were willing to work together, it could be done. We'll never have a perfect system but we could make a better effort.

Well I have to cut this short, time for yard in like 10 minutes & if i miss when they open the dorr, I won't be allowed to go outside. So I want to thank you for writing. I hope you contunue to read what I write. Feel free to always comment. I'm not always right, I'm probably more wrong then right but I have an opinion & I voice it. Take care Maggie, God Bless. Ciao>