posted by Sam Richards
A number of people have asked about our experiences with “lifers” at the prison–what it’s like? can you visit? who are these people? With that in mind Laurie asked one of them to write something that we could put on the blog and have you step inside the mind of someone in prison, take a peek inside the walls.
That said, as you read this you need to recognize that this particular man is quite evolved in his understanding of himself, his past, and his crime. He feels deep regret for the murder he committed and has sought victim-offender reconciliation. There are plenty of men inside of those walls “who should never get out,” is what this man would say. And he would also say that there are others who are not the same people that they were when they first entered through the prison gates.
Read his words. He wrote them for you…for this class. And remember that the world is infinitely more complex than any of us can imagine. This guy never graduated from high school, by the way.
A few years ago, when I was much younger, I saw something that changed my understanding of the world in which I now live. It wasn’t something that I didn’t already know; I just didn’t realize that I knew it. Nor was it something that I didn’t already do; I just didn’t realize how natural it was for me to do it. But seeing it, naked and out in the open in the way it happened, made me realize how amazing this act really was in this environment.
I was sitting on some bleachers with a friend of mine shooting the breeze when I glanced around and noticed two men huddled together. I knew both of these men and it was strange to see that one of them had his arm around the shoulders of the other, who in turn had his head hanging low and appeared to be crying. What made this so unusual was that from what I knew of these men, they hated each other.
I turned to my friend and motioned with my head and asked, “What’s up with those two?” He looked over and replied, “Oh, his son died in a car crash and he can’t get in touch with anyone on the phone.” Without words we both understood why the one man would put aside his hate and provide comfort. It seemed perfectly natural to us.
As we stood up to leave, both of us deliberately chose to walk over to these two men. In passing them, each of us in turn put a hand on the crying man’s shoulder and with a slight squeeze we told him how sorry we were. This, too, was natural for us and didn’t take any thinking in order to make that gesture.
My friend and I are “lifers,” convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to spend the rest of our lives behind bars with no possibility of parole. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that this entire event took place in a prison yard. But to us, it is simply the world in which we live. To us, those two men weren’t strange; the situation wasn’t even that rare. Perhaps unusual to see it so openly, but that just made it more meaningful to us.
Later that night as I lay in my bunk, I couldn’t sleep. I kept seeing those two men and that simple act of compassion made me review my world. How many times have I seen or done similar acts and never really thought about it? You would think that in a place filled with convicted criminals, compassion would be so rare that the sight of it would cause suspicion. But here in this place that most people think is full of “beasts” and “uncaring violent predators,” it is actually rather common.
Here there were two convicts who didn’t like one another sharing this very human moment. One was in pain and the other wasn’t’ going to get anything in return for helping to alleviate his suffering. He was doing something that any thinking, feeling, caring man does for another.
Everyday behind these razor wire topped fences there are little acts of compassion. Sometimes it is stopping to listen to another man complain about his day, even though your day has been just as rotten. Another time it may be letting a man use your phone time so he can speak with his daughter on her birthday. But no matter what the act, it is often done without hesitation and with no expectation of anything in return.
You might not believe men in here are capable of compassion—beneath the surface knowledge of another’s plight…not simple sympathy…but a deep soulful understanding. I’m talking about truly feeling another’s pain and wanting to help. This compassion isn’t reserved for fellow prisoners; it is felt for all who suffer any kind of misfortune anywhere in the world.
I have stood beside men as we discussed with a hitch in our voices, blinking back tears, some horrible disaster in the world. I know how upset and frustrated we all feel that we cannot chip in and help. I’ve stood in line with others to give blood, or helped fill out forms to donate money, even written letters to try and help those in need. It seems that whenever a tragedy occurs there is a rallying of men here to provide whatever we can do.
Even in this dark place of hate and misery, you find compassion. You see human beings helping one another simply because seeing another suffer touches their soul. Such compassion is not a commodity held only for the innocent; it is the heart’s recognition of pain in another and the soul’s demand to provide succor—and to any human being no matter their circumstance.
You may believe prison is filled with the worst of men, and there is some truth to that. But look beyond preconceived ideas and you will find some of the tenets of humanity performed in the most incredibly simply ways and by the most unlikely of individuals for the greatest of reasons – to relieve suffering. And why? Because we all suffer and any relief, no matter how small, is of great relief to us all.
It has been said, That if you do the crime, you must pay the time. It has also been said that no one should be let off the hook for any crime regardless of how big or small. Bottom line if someone does something wrong they should have to pay for it for the rest of their lives. However, I have always wondered, for those who say these things, have they ever really place themselves in a criminals shoes? Have they ever tried to understand or even listen to the situation that the criminal was in? Im sure many people would answer no to these questions. They would more than likely feel like why should I even tried to understand? There is nothing to understand. They committed a crime and should be put away for it. Now I agree with these statements to a certain degree. I mean people should be punished for their crimes regardless of size, but that does not mean that we as society should throw them away because they have made a mistake.
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I think that these people have come to some type of self realization that jail is not the end for them, even though we think that it is. They have come to realize the error in their ways and change. This is not about all of them, but a select few have found that being in jail for the rest of their lives has helped them. Because without this, being in jail, they would have never realized that what they were doing was wrong. They might have still been out in the world ding things that should not be done.
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Prison has never made much sense to me. The ostensible purpose of the institution is to impose a form of punishment on those who have broken the law, and to remove them from society for a time. One could also argue that prison should also attempt to rehabilitate prisoners and return them to society improved, so that they are less likely to get in trouble in the future. However, I have to question how effectively the system works to accomplish these goals.
Let's start first with the purpose of rehabilitation. Rehabilitation efforts should be concerned with changing the behavior of inmates in a way that makes them more acceptable to the prevailing laws and norms of society. So regardless of methodology, a good indicator of success in rehabilitation is recidivism rates: Do inmates come back to prison after their release? Unfortunately, recidivism is extremely high in the U.S., with 44.1% of inmates being incarcerated within a year of their release from prison, and with 67.5% being incarcerated within three years. This suggests that efforts for rehabilitation are limited in effect, and prisons either do not serve this purpose, or serve it poorly.
Second, consider the purpose of removing troublemakers from society. Prisons do have the effect of removing from society those individuals who have been arrested by the police and subsequently sentenced to serve time by the court system. Unfortunately, there are two problems with that reality. First of all, the criminal justice system is a blunt instrument. Innocent people are sentenced to serve time in prison every day, because the system is twisted. Layers of incompatible law and ill-defined precedents are heaped haphazardly on top of each other over time, and it gives real criminals an out, and it provides opportunity to convict individuals who are innocent of a crime. Second, the definition of "anti-social behavior" is determined by bureaucrats, politicians and lawyers—who is to say that they represent the prevailing views and the best interests of society. For example, while one could argue the hazard of making use of marijuana, it is rather difficult to effectively argue that it is a scourge on society, or that it is an antisocial or destructive behavior. Some people decided that some years ago, and so it is illegal to possess marijuana in most states—but is the use of jail time in these cases really conducive to the goal of removing the antisocial individuals from general society?
Finally, consider the issue of punishment. Certainly prison sentences offer provide punishment to those who disobey the law. I don't want to go to prison, you don't want to go to prison, and most people you know don't want to go to prison. However, you must ask whether it is the most effective fashion of punishment, or whether it is an appropriate punishment in every case. As regards the prior, there are plenty of possibilities to consider in terms of punishment which would involve a more productive term of service—which don't involve leaving inmates sitting around doing nothing. Likewise, forms of punishment could be employed which don't involve incarceration. Concerning the prior, many laws place minimum jail times on certain convictions, and this leads to people being sentenced to terms in jail whose lengths really don't reflect the nature of the crime.
In general, I would conclude that there are serious problems with the U.S. prison system.
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Something that I kept in mind while I read this was that you can never understand anyone unless you are that person. No one can explain things that happen in your life like you can because you are the one who experienced in first hand. Anyone outside of that experience will see it differently and experience it differently if they had been in your situation. People are raised differently by their parents or guardians and they are also raised in different circumstances—any of which are similar, but never the same.
I read this letter and realized that everyone is human, but they handle things differently depending on the situation. Some people take things too hard or they take things too light. For instance, the motive for this man’s murder would have been driven by a much stronger feeling than someone who decides not to murder the person because they feel differently and would handle it differently than this man. I think many of us immediately look at a murderer and think negative things because this man or woman killed another human being, taking their life away. We hear and see these stories on the news all the time, but do we ever know what is going on? In order to truly understand, you have to have been in that whole experience; if you were not, then you would not understand otherwise. It does not matter what age you are or what level of education you have completed (notice that Sam mentioned this man never graduated from high school), everyone is still human and has feelings—even if these feelings are handled differently. I think many of us take for granted how normal things are for us in our lives that we immediately judge someone by their actions. I mean, they are only human and have the same feelings as anyone else (unless he or she is mentally unstable—like a sociopath, who lacks certain emotions).
Another thing to take from this is that when people experience something and feel differently from it when they first experienced it, it makes them have a different outlook on their actions. This man for example says that he regrets it, which means he intends to take care of his actions more carefully. This can apply to anybody and their lives. I am sure there are those of us who think differently than we used to when we were only 5 years old, for instance. I think his message is great and we can learn to grow from our actions and experiences, which is one of life’s lessons that is not taught to us formally. We just learn for ourselves… and that is what matters in the end.
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I think that this was by far one of the best posts that I have read on this site all semester. It is amazing to be able to read something written by a "lifer." It introduced me to something I never would have thought about. I do not think much about the men in prison and the things that they do on a daily basis. I do not have pity for these men because taking someone’s life is an unforgiveable crime and they must accept the consequences. However, although these men are convicted of killing someone they really still are human beings. Before reading this if someone were to ask me what I thought about "lifers" in prison I would have said exactly what this man referred to himself and the other men as "beasts." I do think that these men deserve to be in prison and they absolutely do not deserve to get out no matter how sorry they are because they took someone else's life. They should not get the chance of parole because that is like giving them a second chance at life. The person they killed does not have the option of coming back to life and living again. They are gone for good. But reading this article made me realize human beings are a special breed. Humans make mistakes; humans are full of compassion and understanding, and humans in perspective are good. You know when someone asks you whether you think that most people are good or whether most people are bad. That is what I mean by saying humans are mostly good. Looking at the most dangerous men probably in the world, the men in prison, and they still have compassion. That has to say something. I think that stuff like this is extremely interesting. Hearing the point of view of a man in prison is a rarity and having access to such things is also an infrequency. SOC119 was my favorite class I have taken here at Penn State so far and I think it is going to be pretty hard to top. I did not dread going to class like some of my other classes and I found almost all the lectures interesting. The class really makes you think and I like that. I would and actually already have recommended this class to anyone who wants to think deeper. In my opinion, I think that SOC119 should offer more thinks like this letter from the inmate in the semesters to come. Stuff like this has more of an impact than certain things like just listening to lecture or listening to peoples questions and having them get answered. I really do think that this should be incorporated more into the curriculum.
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If this letter itself is eye opening, I cannot imagine how incredibly more eye opening it would be to actually hang out with the lifers in prison for a while and get to know them for real. From the way this lifer speaks, I feel as though everybody in society should get a taste of being a lifer. The compassion he talks about in his letter is not seen around in the real world to this extent. It is more difficult for people who have not suffered to have compassion to the extent that those who have suffered. Unless we know what it is like to be in the shoes of somebody else, we cannot truly understand and feel true compassion for them. This is true for even some of the biggest disasters that strike the world. I wish these lifers could be let out. What is stopping our society to let them free except for the fact that society has them judged so incorrectly? We are all so quick to judge people, and it is completely natural and acceptable to an extent. Stereotyping helps our brains simplify the world to keep it organized and keep it from over thinking. However, I also feel that people who have genuinely changed and show remorse should be set free. Those of us outside the prison could learn so much about humanity and the ability to change from them. I have never visited a prison, but I think it would be such a surreal experience. There would be so many stereotypes and judgments broken and corrected. However, I do understand that not all of the lifers have changed and should be set free. Some people deserve to be locked up for life to keep the world safe. Moving on, I just told my roommates about this letter and told them how it is amazing to see that what we always assumed is actually not true. However, they would not believe me and simply refused to listen to the letter or read it. They said theres no such thing and that they are in prison for a reason. I asked them to open their minds, but they refused to do it in this case. It blows my mind when I hear this type of close-mindedness. I guess we all know and say that we cannot judge a book by its cover, but we all do it anyway. I feel as though visiting the prisoners would be a very cool experience. Maybe we should start having field trips from schools and try to spread the word. Then, maybe these prisoners would be set free if they deserve to be.
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This definitely has given me a new perspective on how inmates who are sentenced to life in prison feel and think. I have never met a person who was in prison, and I have never known the psychology of someone who has committed a crime that got them a life sentence. And since I obviously am not on a life sentence, I do not know how lifers think. That being said, this is the first experience I have had regarding someone who will be spending the rest of their life behind bars. This letter really surprised me, and it shows more than just lifer psychology: it shows human psychology.
I will admit I have stereotyped inmates before just from everything I have ever watched on television or read. But outside of gang members and ruthless serial killers, many of these people are normal citizens who made a bad decision and now live with the consequences. That does not make them necessarily bad people however. I always thought a murderer would either be an inherently evil person who would commit murder again if released or a person who would sit in prison and pity himself. That is not the case it seems.
This small act of compassion shows more than just how the inmates think and act. It shows how we think and act. When this inmate and his friend saw the crying man being consoled, they joined in. And how often do we see that happen in our regular lives? It is really a great thing to see that when some person is upset, it sets off a chain reaction where one person helps, followed by another, and another, and another. For example, a friend of mine this weekend, at a party, found out his cousin and best friend had been hospitalized and was in intensive care. One of our friends and I, instead of just blowing it off and going to party with everyone else, we took him upstairs to a room and hung out with him and helped him call his parents and figure the entire situation out. We could have just played the situation off and gone to a party or whatever but one person consoling my friend was enough to influence me and make me realize what the most important things are.
For everything you do that helps someone out, they will remember. My friend thanked me the next day and that was all the favor I needed in return. I knew I had done the right thing and that was enough for me. I wish people would realize this, and despite it being second-nature to many already, I believe we could have a lot more compassion in the world, more than we already have, if people recognized this.
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It is so hard to imagine what life inside prison cells is like. There are so many movies and books that try to illustrate to the reader how the inmates live and survive, but they fail in truly providing knowledge to those on the outside. I think this letter really described well the many layers of human condition for its readers. How the man described the men hating each other to the fact that they were embracing and helping each other in a time of despair, it was really beautifully written.
I do not know how I feel now about life imprisonment. I always believed that the crime of murder is too horrendous to perhaps let happen again by someone. But it was also discussed in my CAS class how much we are paying to keep all these men incarcerated. And if men really do repent what they have done and know in their hearts it will not be repeated, then perhaps it is in our best interest to let them out.
I think what this letter really offered to me as self-reflection about my own opinions about life imprisonment. I had never really taken the time to consider how I really felt about locking people away for good, but I am not so sure I think it is the best idea now. I know this class is supposed to get us to think about things we might not have had to discuss before in everyday conversation and this letter is one topic that particularly struck home with me. I guess we just never really discussed prison at home—other than to warn my brothers not to end up there. I guess I just never really realized that the people who are in jail could grow from the experience, as people are able to grow from anything.
I heard about an interesting psychological study where the brains of convicted felons were actually scanned. Apparently there is an area of the brain just behind the left ear that is in charge of feelings of remorse and guilt and some people do not have sufficient brain tissue in that area to feel the same as others do. This could explain scientifically why some people are racked with guilt over very small transgressions and others do not feel remorse over taking another’s life. I wonder if the science progresses whether or not we will at some point be able to discern those prisoners who really do feel bad and would not repeat the same actions, and those who still might in the future. Of course, to do it scientifically would still take all the humanity out of it, but perhaps it is a start.
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It is pretty cool that he wrote this letter for our class. I would love to go with sam and laurie to rockview, it would be amazing to be able to meet some lifers and hear from their perspectives. Knowing that you will never get out of the little cell you are living in is such a hard thing to get over and it is very interesting to see the different ways people cope. It seems to me like sooner or later everyone comes to terms with what they’ve done and the repercussions of it, for some people that probably happens a lot faster than for others. No matter how long it takes for someone to change I think that when faced with such an absolute thing you conscious has to change in many different ways. I have heard of a man who was in for life and he started writing children books when he was there. I have never really had the impression that everyone in jail is a blood thirsty killing machine. I always thought that people could change even after being in prison for most of their life. The Shawshank Redemption is one of my favorite movies of all time and it shows some of the prisoners as friendly companions working to get themselves through the shit they got themselves into. It shows others as the violent stereotype of prisoners; it is interesting to watch how the two personality types get along. No matter what thought these people deserve to be locked up for what they’ve done. They can change and gain all kinds of new insights into the world if they want but that will not change the past. It really sucks that all of life can come down to just a few seconds when you make the wrong decision. You can perform the simple act of pulling a trigger, but then spent the rest of your life waking up and going to sleep in the same tiny room with no chance to change you circumstances. Its good to see that people can take the good side of a situation even when they are in prison and living a hard life. There are free men who don’t have the insight or self awareness to see the world in a way close to those in jail, which makes sense since so many people make bad decisions that hurt others everyday yet they don’t get caught. That’s what it really comes down to; whether or not you get got, and thanks to racial profiling and corruption in police forces, some people are more prone to getting caught by no fault of their own.
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This letter was definitely my favorite post put up on this blog. Although I heard Sam and Laurie mention about their visits with the inmates a few times in class, it is still only an outsider’s perspective. Being able to listen to this man’s feelings and thoughts through his own words really provides a better inside look into what some of these men are truly like.
I really don’t understand how so many people are shocked by the fact that this man can be compassionate and caring. Crimes are committed for a variety of reasons, and all are not committed out of pure malice for the entire human race. Even if it is committed based on malice towards one person, there is most likely a very long and deep story that goes along with it that most people would not be able to understand. People get into fights at bars, and getting angry towards people for no real reason. Men are stereotypically known to handle arguments with fights, but this doesn’t make them uncompassionate or bad people. I think the best example is the story that Sam told one day in class.
He was talking about the man who got into a fight with someone at a bar, and the other man happened to fall and his hit head. Since the internal bleeding in his brain was so excessive, it caused him to die. Now, honestly, a situation like this could happen to at least half of the men in State College. Many people have gotten into fights at bars, and although most walk away with some minor bumps and bruises, I guarantee that when the two people are fighting, they aren’t thinking to themselves “oh, well I’ll just punch him on this side of his face because otherwise I could possible rupture an artery and kill the man.”
Although I do feel that when a person commits murder the most just thing to do is to sentence them life in prison, I still feel remorse for many of those people. It is sad to me that the person did not think enough about their actions at the time to realize that killing a person would severely impact the rest of their life, as well as their family. Later on, no matter how much remorse or guilt they feel about the crime that was committed, their actions affected a lot of people who’s loved one was killed. Unfortunately, it is sad that actions can’t be taken back, but that is why people have to think before they do things, even though it might be hard with testosterone running through someone’s body.
Getting back to the man’s letter, I think that it is nice that lifers at least have each other for emotional support. Although they have been ripped away from their families and the people they love due to their actions, it is nice that they can still confide in others. I think that once people eventually come to the realization that they will never get out of prison, it will allow them to move forward and create a life in the situation that they are in. I believe that lifers can be happy just like everyone else, but I feel that it would take a lot of time for people to be fully happy. I also feel that for many lifers that realization will never come, and they will be unhappy until the day that they finally die.
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It’s hard to find compaction for someone who is serving life in prison. The majority of the blog replies have stated how awesome it was for them to find that someone is prison could right about something “deep”. I need help with this however, given that by nature I feel that all criminals are the “animals” that most people think that they are. I’m a Crime, Law, and Justice major here at State, and I have worked with criminals during internships and such over the track of my college career. No doubt that these people are real human beings, I’ve seen the emotion of families that have been separated by people incarcerated in the court room. Not only just with lifers, when faced with the prospect of incarceration many people and their family members cannot handle the reality and lose their posterity in the courtroom becoming violent or irate. Here’s the idea that I can’t wrap my head around. Why do people feel compaction for people that have been incarcerated?
I understand that this blog and letter are not about generation of sympathy for those convicted, but rather about how persons convicted of crimes are people too, and they demonstrate human characters even after being convicted. OK, so they still have emotion. But, that emotion can and will be used to manipulate in a prison society where humans operate on a basis as animals, where the strong survive and the weak perish. A close family member of mine was a CO at a state prison for over forty years; I grew up every day with him coming home from prison. It’s hard not to bring that home with you when everyday it’s your job to preserve order amongst the dysfunctional of society and stop this population from killing each other, or the other CO’s that help maintain the order. So please understand me when I say that it seems that I have little sorrow for someone who ends up spending life in prison. I understand that true Shaw-Shank Redemption stories do exist; I’m not saying that our justice system is perfect. What I am saying is that the person who committed whatever crime they did to spend the rest of their life in prison is means to an end for their punishment. Someone who commits manslaughter should have thought of the repercussions of their bank robbery before they committed the crime. Some of the worst punishments ever, such as not being able to see your family grow up, or missing the birth of a child, or even a high school graduation are all what needs to be considered before the act occurred. What about the families of the victims? They may have lost the life of a family member due to the crime that was committed by the convicted. It’s not black and white, but shades of gray, many, many shades of gray.
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Every time Sam or Laurie says something about the “lifers” they know, I always wonder about what kinds of things they talk about with them. It is literally impossible to fathom (for me at least) the idea of being in a place, in jail, and never being able to leave for the rest of my life. It is true that there is a negative connotation along with “lifers,” which in some respects makes sense because of course they did do something as terrible as committing murder, but it is so so interesting to get the other side of this by reading this inmate’s letter. It was an incredible eye-opening experience reading what this man had to say about compassion, and how it exists, and in full force, inside the walls of a prison that holds behind its walls the men we are all quick to stereotype. His letter speaks so much to the idea of humanity, which is what I think he’s trying to convene to us as his readers. Humanity runs deeper than the surface of who someone might seem to be, whether they are a murderer or a regular, average person walking down the street. It is indescribably heartwarming to read that story about the one man consoling the other because it truly demonstrates the person to person connection that exists on a deeper level between two human beings. I re-read this letter several times, because the insight that this man, who Sam wrote has never completed high school, has, and the intelligence and eloquence with which he wrote, was astounding to me. But I started to wonder, how unique of a case is he? Does he fit the mold of the average “lifer,” or is he instead the exception? And I also found myself wondering how his crime occurred and in what circumstance he killed another human being. And if he is sorry, and feels regret, or if he has simply accepted his fate. The complexity of this man was almost too much for me to fathom, and if I were ever face to face with him I am not sure I could stop myself from asking a million questions. This letter also made me feel a bit of sadness, because the stereotype of prisoners and just of prison in general is so opposite of what this man’s letter conveyed. All the movies and television shows I have seen portray prisoners as evil and cruel murderers who, if given the chance, would repeat their past offenses, but this man’s heartfelt letter paints the complete opposite picture. I wish that more people could read this and realize that not all people in prison are of the caliber that they are stereotyped to be.
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This piece and this man is a clear example that perhaps prisons do work and aid in rehabilitation of the mind, soul, and body. A sincere thanks to this lifer for sharing insight into a day in the life at jail, which many, including myself at times, think is a cold, dark place with no human element. I would imagine being in jail for life takes a severe toll on a person unless they can finally learn to embrace it and try to make themselves and the world around them a bit better while they are here on earth. The fact that two men who are known to hate each other can share in such a profoundly deep moment should give us all hope that the human spirit, and compassion especially, can help us rise above petty or important grievances we have with one another.
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This letter made me see a side of some people in jail that I never thought I would see, but it doesn’t change my thoughts about anything. He talks about a man who lost his son in an accident, what about the son, daughter, father, mother, brother, or sister, that this man killed. Where is the compassion for their family? People who are killed do not get a second chance at life, so I don’t see why inmates who are sentenced to life should. He says that there are some people in jail who are capable of compassion because they have a deep soulful understanding and can feel another’s pain. I’m sure the families who lost a loved one because of these men in jail can also feel the same compassion because of a deep soulful understanding and feeling another’s pain and wanting to help.
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I’m a strong believer in the fact that people can change and that everyone makes mistakes. Sure there are certain things that are unforgivable such as murder and other physical crimes against another human being, but there are also other extenuating circumstances that we may not be aware of. It is hard to say that one single act defines someone and it is even harder to say how these acts will affect someone in the afterlife, as this is a part of a question that we’re in constant limbo about is if there is an afterlife? Are these people in jail bad people or people who have made a bad mistake, that’s the question we all must answer.
The other night I watched a movie titled, “The life of David Gale,” and this movie brought up a questionable topic in itself, and that’s the death penalty. If you have not seen this film, I strongly suggest viewing it as it opens you up to a reality that is terrible to face. It discusses and raises questions that there have been people put to death who were proven innocent, and this only discusses the ones who were put to death, but does make you wonder about everyone else. The inmate in this letter mentions that there are some people who don’t belong behind bars, and part of me wonders exactly who those people are. To protect our society we can’t exactly have a method for weaving out who is truly a murder and who isn’t, who has truly found the light, and who is still suffering, and that is what makes it so hard to give anyone a second chance. I’m sure that the inmates are not the only one seeing the compassion expressed on a day to day basis and the guards see it too, but when you have nothing left and lose the only thing you have left on the outside it is almost impossible to not show compassion no matter how strong your heart is.
My concern is not for those that committed the crimes, but those who were put into these cells and don’t belong. Like I said you can not weave out who has changed, or who has found the light, because these are convicts that you’re dealing with who probably would do or say anything to get out and be given a second chance. Put yourself in there shoes however, imagine that you committed a crime, not one that necessarily involves hurting someone else, as that is ultimately unforgivable. But put yourself in there shoes and picture how you would feel. After years behind bars, without family or friends, I know I would want a second chance too. As human beings we all are capable of compassion one way or another.
One thing that I have learned about in a few of my criminology and sociology classes, is how one’s upbringing can effect not only their psychological life, but actions as well. Growing up a lot of people may see violence as the only way out, or the only way to live. How is it that we can really, without placing ourselves in their shoes or their upbringing say that they are a bad person? Is anyone a bad person if that is what makes us or defines us? And how is it that we will be judged on who were were when we lived here on earth in the afterlife as well if all of our actions now can be tied in with how we were raised? Is it fair to throw blame on us as human beings? There are so many questions when it comes to this, when it comes to being given a second chance, or when it comes to defining us as human beings that we will never be able to answer.
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Like many others in class, when Sam and Laurie first brought up the lifers I was very interested and wanted to know more about them. I have always wanted to visit a prison and see how the prisoners cope and live in a place that becomes their whole world. When i think of a prisoner, I automatically think of bad things that relate to crime and bad people. A lot of the times that is the case, the prisoners in jail have done a very bad thing and deserve to be put in jail.
One thing i have no idea about is the circumstances they were in before the crime they committed. When i read the letter, i didn't feel that i was reading a letter from a prisoner. The letter sounded very real and as if it was written from the heart. When to people in jail hate each other you expect the worst, you expect one of them to hurt the other but the last thing we expect is for one of them to hold the other as he cries. The letter really opened my eyes because these people also have hearts and feel compassion for one and other.
The lifers all murdered people, they obviously did not feel for the person they killed and did what they did for their own reasons. I am guessing that the man who wrote this letter has been in prison for a long time and the two men he talked about probably have served for a while as well. Its hard to think about a murderer in a good light, however reading this honestly made me feel bad for some of them. I think that when they are put in jail and forced to come to reality they with time come to their senses and understand the mistakes they have made.
I don't think it is easy to fake the passion that this prisoner had in his writing and i honestly believe that this man has at least become a better person while he spent his time in jail. I do not have to be in jail to know how it feels to hate someone and for a prisoner to feel for his enemy in a time of need makes me think that if they went back in time they would not make the same mistake which lead them to life in prison.
I believe that anyone who commits murder deserves to be in prison, however reading this letter really taught me that people can change for the better no matter what they did. I am glad that i read such a letter and i would love to be able to visit the lifers in the future.
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