Freedom and Justice for All?

There is a lesson in this for me:  Just wait out the storm, and it will pass.

Keven has calmed down and is once again "doing well" at his rehab.  The first few days there were horrible because his PO put him on a 90 day lock-down because she was angry at him and that was her punishment.  The rules of the rehab are 30 days, but she has the final authority over almost everything in his life.

He ranted and raved and threatened, and as usual I got sucked into it and was very upset.  I have gotten better, I didn't fret as much or as for long as usual and I made myself less available to him.  But still, I went through a few hellish days of worry, anger and concern.

Because of our awesome attorney and the counselors at "United", he finally settled down.  I know my son and he was reacting to the "unfairness" of the situation.  From a very early age I have taught him that life is not fair and told him that people who didn't accept that fact were miserable at times.  Its not easy to accept when you have a strong sense of justice and want things to be equal for everyone.  I'm an idealist at heart, but some things require me to be realistic (I hate that!)

Life doesn't operate on fairness or justice.  When a drunk driver kills your daughter as she walks to school and then gets a light sentence for it, where is the fairness?  If the parent wants justice for the child, he/she can murder the drunk driver but then they lose their freedom.  No one ever wins, you just have to accept the things your can't change and move forward the best you can.

I feel that Anthony's brother is going to get a very stiff sentence for a very minor violation, and Anthony may be walking out of jail in a month or two after all the shit he's done in the last few months.  NOT FAIR.  Ant wants to take his brother's sentence but I don't think that's an option (but it would be fair!).

I always think I am going to write a short post, but then I go on and on.  I will end  here with these words:

I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.

     --Abraham Lincoln

It is essential that justice be done, and it is equally vital that justice not be confused with revenge, for the two are wholly different.

     --Oscar Aria

The law isn't justice. It's a very imperfect mechanism. If you press exactly the right buttons and are also lucky, justice may show up in the answer. A mechanism is all the law was ever intended to be.

     --Raymond Chandler

A court is a place where what was confused before becomes more unsettled than ever.

     --Henry Waldorf Francis

Many things in life are not fair but all things should be.

     -- Michael Josephson

It is much more difficult to know what is fair than what is unfair.

     -- Michael Josephson

When circumstances are unfair, you can show good character by continuing to do the best you can do. 


     --Donna Forrest

Never let bitterness follow unfairness. Bitterness only hurts you. 


     -- Donna Forrest





Peace, Hope and Love, Barbara

Missin My Boy - and a rant

Some days I miss him a lot.  Like today.

I'm against locking addicts up in jail, sometimes it does more harm than good (what good does it do????)

What always fails to make sense to me is that the American Medical Association declared addiction to be a disease in 1956 - yet we are treating it as a crime.

The criteria for addiction as a disease:

Primary: The illness exists in and of itself. (But may manifest in addition to other illnesses.)

Chronic: Does not go away, heal spontaneously or remit.

Progressive: Over time it gets worse.

Symptomatic: Can be diagnosed by the way it manifests in a person’s physiology, behavior and lifestyle.

Fatal: If left untreated will result in death.

Treatable: Proven medication, therapies, and lifestyle changes do result in the ability to live without the abused substance

But we keep stuffing our jails and prisons with more and more drug addicts.  Sure, the commit crimes related to drug use (mostly theft to get money for their drugs) but what if we treated them instead of locking them up again and again.  Instead of all the money taxpayers spend on housing, feeding and guarding over these prisoners - how about it we spend it on some TREATMENT OF THE DISEASE instead?  Only the very wealthy (or the very willing to go deep into debt) can afford the outrageous cost of in-patient drug treatment (and that's with insurance).  Its not right.

Wow.  This was going to be a simple post about missing Keven, but it kind of got me going on one of my many pet peeves...


Peace, Hope and Love, Barbara

Institutionalized Cruelty and other Unfairness in Our "Justice" System

(warning - I'm ranting today!)

I am watching Jane Valez Mitchell on CNN.  She's a bit dramatic but I almost always agree with her viewpoints and appreciate her bringing attention to issues other people won't touch.  Like today, here are some things she and her panel are saying about our prison system:

Jails and prisons are full of non-violent drug offenders that are treated the same as criminals which does NOTHING to solve the problem, it creates MORE of a problem by CREATING HARD CRIMINALS.

They said that three types of these inmates should be evaluated and treated rather than thrown into the system where, depending on their "class", size, and personality - will end up being the ones most abused in jail.  The three types are:

• ADHD
• Bi-polar
• Learning disability

(my son has two of these)
These are the types that USUALLY go in because of mistakes/drugs and come out as hardened criminals. 

Even if we don't care about the "criminals" we should be concerned about helping rehabilitation to keep ourselves safe because when they get our they are more likely to commit violent crimes.   

It costs $30,000 A YEAR TO HOUSE ONE PRISONER!  Why can't we use some of that money to REHABILITATE drug addicts??? 

78,000 people were arrested and prosecuted for marijuana in CA alone last year!  Why are we focusing on that when thereare child molesters and rapists running around? 

Addiction does not go away with incarceration.

They are saying all this starts in the home - that's not true, if that were true most of us would not have kids on drugs/in jail because we did our best....and those of you with more than one child, wouldn't ALL your kids be in jail if it were your lack of parenting skills or concern that influenced their drug addiction???? 

For every 100 Americans there is one person in prison.  WHAT? 

There are more people in the US prison system than any other country even though many countries have a much larger population.

We are so focused on crime and punishment we have dropped the ball of prevention.  I AGREE! 

There is no rehabilitation offered in most jails/prisons.

When young people (like my son) are prosecuted and found guilty for drug charges, they are at a huge disadvantage for getting a good job because they already have a felony on their record.  Yes CELEBRITIES can get away with MURDER.

Ok.  I am going to settle down now.  Yes, our justice system is messed up.  It has a lot to do with MONEY.  If you have money you hire an attorney and get off for the same crimes that send our kids to jail for minor drug offenses due to the disease of ADDICTION.  

It just makes me so mad that we (the US) recongnizes addiction as a disease but treats addicts like criminals (unless you have money).

Oh, one last thing...speaking of money:  

It also costs the family of the person in jail.  Yes, I put money on my son's books so he can buy things like:  soap, stamps, paper, envelopes, shampoo, a pillow, Top Ramen (his main food staple because they don't feed him enough).  Yes, I also pay about $50 a month or more on receiving phone calls from him because I WANT to talk to him.

Some prisoners don't have ANY of these things and they are treated poorly - can you imagine being in jail with no soap or shampoo or not able to write a letter?  I think that's a bit extreme.  But not all families can afford to keep money on their loved one's books all the time.  

How come a young man born in a poor area can be put in jail for years for domestic violence but Chris Brown got community service?  MONEY.

How come when Lindsay Lohan got arrested for DUI and had more drugs on her than my son had on him when he was arrested (and he was not DUI) she got 84 MINUTES in jail and my son is on day 67?

Ok, I really am off my soapbox now...