Of course you probably meant he didn’t have a chance after the crimes because of the harsh sentence rather than he never had a chance because he had to commit armed robbery.

Fine. Turn him loose now. Maybe he won’t kill anyone I care about. It should definitely be safer for corrections officers to release him.

David with change of heart

I don’t want others hurt. If he is better off in prison and not harming others, I’m all for him staying there. If he has a chance on the outside, I’m for giving him that chance. I don’t believe we will ever know as I am pretty certain with the guidelines currently in place that he won’t be out anytime soon.

Oh, but I AM. Really. If I knew any way to be sure he would never hurt anybody, I would want him released immediately. I sincerely hope someone comes up with a method to make it possible. I don’t want to waste other people’s money making him an involuntary ward of the state.

But I’m a bleeding heart liberal for others too. For the people he has made clear he would kill if they got in his way. For the children who would become orphans at his free hands. For the widows and widowers and childless couples he would create if he decided they were between him and another haul.

(Of course, a real liberal is liberal with what he has, not one who is liberal with the property and lives of others.)

It’s easy to say he never had a chance because of whatever reason, but is it true? Haven’t others in worse situations decided to rise above it and be decent people? If he is really hopeless from the start, we need to consider euthanasia to end his miserable life and protect others.

I just don’t go along with the philosophy which calls it a success when a third of released inmates aren’t captured after doing more heinous crimes after being released. My liberal heart cares for all the others who are harmed by such releases.

Again, find a way to prove him safe to release on the general population or make him safe and I will favor releasing him immediately.

David for freedom for all

David, I normally like your blogs, but your tone and diction in your return blog to my post make it apparent you completely missed my drift. The boy was 17 and really never stood a chance to begin with. Ye, he would probably still have been a career criminal unless someone had intervened in this young man’s life. After 14 years in prison, he’s learned nothing but to be criminal, UNLESS he was fortunate enough to be mentored by some staff and inmates dedicated to helping others reform and not come back to prison.

I work in a prison, therefore I am VERY aware that some model inmates do not make model citizens. You are preaching to the choir, brother.

Also, I am a very conservative person – not liberal at all. I just believe that we do need to give others a chance to succeed or fail. I know what the track records of individuals like this young man look like – but as I said, if no one can change, then what it the point in any of this? We can’t just lock people up and throw away the key if there is an opportunity to salvage them. That’s really all i was saying. I’n not a bleeding heart liberal, believe me!

It DOES allow him to grow up and see the error of his ways. It just doesn’t allow him to continue to threaten store clerks in the mean time. It also doesn’t allow him to enjoy life the way he would have had he not done so.

I know armed robbery must seem like a petty thing to you but please consider what it actually involves: Assuming the use of a gun, a person points a machine at some poor girl who’s just trying to earn enough to feed her family without sponging off the rest of us. A movement of his finger of a fraction of an inch will set off a small explosive charge driving a slug of lead into her body, killing or crippling her. The person who does such a thing wants $300 more than he is willing to let her live out her life.

Then he does it again. Every armed robbery is attempted murder because the robber has made it clear he is willing to murder for pennies. He will continue to do it until he is stopped.

And then he goes before a judge and shows no sign of conscience, just anger that he didn’t get more and get away with it. He may even be thinking how he would be free right now if he just hadn’t left any living witnesses. He promises himself not to make that mistake next time.

Then that mean old judge tells him he doesn’t get a next time.

But thankfully, now he WILL get a next time and he’ll do it right then. No witnesses.

David for lessons learned