Our " Justice" System. Apathy Is Death

Our justice system isn't any where close to rehabilitative. In fact, it is more destructive than anything else. Have you ever hung out with educated people who have been in and out of jail before? They exist. They have MA's and BA's. They have wives and kids and families, and they want to be a part of the Church. They want to have a good job and help support their families. But they slipped up. Most of these guys just did drugs at one time or another. So they get put in jail, got everything taken away from them and rot for a few years without learning any useful skills. Then they get released on probation. The world shuns them, the workforce shuns them, and they are expected to have it all together in a matter of two weeks: stay clean, have a job, a place to live, and go to their _anonymous meetings. Oh, but any drug distributor will befriend them, any gang banger or drug lord. Any pimp will offer opportunity. Sometimes, if their lucky they get a referral to a place like Urbane Knights. They get accountability and learn to manage their lives and get jobs. And we wonder why there are so many relapses, so much returning to the jails. It's because we reject them and don't believe in them. It's because of the "bad person" gene perception that we have and the prejudging. It's because of apathy, because we refuse to trust, to take the risk. And then they choose the easy thing. The dog goes back to its vomited. Have you ever had lunch with and relaxed on a Sunday afternoon with "bad people?" It's really quite nice. But oh, the struggle. If we were under the amount of stress they are in. Surely we who have it all together might be crushed.