re: Visited the Angola Rodeo and Craft fair and was amazed what I saw. Can good come from bad?

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It’s far more nuanced than that. I think of history. Violence and bloodshed were commonplace throughout the long march. Killers and thieves and reavers lived alongside everyone else. There weren’t the massive penitentiaries where men could be locked up for breaking any one of the myriad laws in a system. Killers have been in our midst from the beginning. The men who built the world were killers and conquerers. And we celebrate some of them today. And i’m Not just talking about murderers. I’m sure there are people there locked up for crimes that threatened the state more than society.

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The murder rate was a lot higher before we started locking these psychos up. We live in the safest time.

Again, if you want to live next to them go for it. I’m not gunna stop you.

Now if you want to talk about nonviolent crimes that’s a different story. But most of the guys in Angola weren’t dealing weed

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Thinking that perhaps there’s a better way to punish crimes and reform people doesn’t mean I support clown world. There’s room to be tough on those who are truly evil and still reform a broken system.

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Then go volunteer at the prison.

You have all these grandiose ideas but the ways to implement them are lacking. It sounds good but how are you gunna feel when one of these nuts that you let out slaughters another innocent person? You going to be able to sleep at night.

Just because they have other talents doesn’t mean they aren’t dangerous. The only thing you know about these guys is that they are good at woodworking, and you are ready to release them into society?

Grow up

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It depends. What were those artist found guilty of?

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It seemed in bad form to ask. Some were behind fences...I figured those were the bad apples, didn’t buy anything from them.

But most were out and about at their tables, selling their wares, visiting. If not for the shirts and the location you couldn’t tell the difference between those men and free men selling crafts at an art fair.

And who knows, maybe I bought something made by a murderer. The ancient man with the crazy white hair who looked like Einstein could have gunned down a man in cold blood decades ago. Maybe he got busted selling something the government decided was illegal. Maybe he left a woman to slowly drown after crashing drunk off a bridge.

I don’t know. What I do know is that in that moment he didn’t seem a threat to anyone. He just made beautiful bowls out of discarded hunks of wood.

This country, in its formative years, was hewn from the wilderness by men who at times committed acts that today would have them in prison forever. Yet they built this country. Had families. Were part of society.

Doc Holliday, Wild Bill Hickok, both murderers who are celebrated as heroes. The world has always been violent. We’ve been killing each other since man first picked up a sharp rock. The world has changed but man hasn’t. And I don’t know if one act of evil makes a man evil forever.

Maybe i’m Wrong. Maybe there is no redemption and if released that old man would kill with abandon.

Damn fine bowl though

This escalated quickly

Gabby sounds angry

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You have all these grandiose ideas but the ways to implement them are lacking. It sounds good but how are you gunna feel when one of these nuts that you let out slaughters another innocent person? You going to be able to sleep at night.

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Man i’m Just drinking and thinking.

I’m not saying release every violent gangbanger that can make a chair. Far from it. I think if a crime is heinous enough you ought to swing from a tall tree in short time if it’s proven beyond a doubt.

I’m saying that men of lesser evil, given proper rehabilitation, skills and purpose, might serve society better than being locked away for the rest of their life. The world isn’t black and white. Some people do change.

Maybe the way the system is could benefit from change too.

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I hope every animal in that prison dies crying you misguided loquacious douchebag

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Most of them will, so you can sleep soundly.

If everyone in there deserves to die, why not just kill them and be done with it? If the purpose is to rehabilitate, then why not give the rehabilitated a chance at life again?

If everyone thrown into that oubliette is hopelessly lost, why bother?

I’m Gabriel Susan Lewis.







You’re listening to, Fresh Air

If one of these pieces of detritus raped your daughter or home invaded your elderly parents you would want them skinned alive. Any glorification of these shite rags is a slap in the face to the victims of their atrocities.

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That said our penal system does a terrible job at identifying those that can be reformed and segregating them from those that likely can't be reformed

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I have no problem with this concept in non lifer prisons, but the best thing for Angola would be a bomb