Author: Tony Casson

" For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." (Jeremiah 29:11 NLT)

“AMERICA’S CULTURE OF INCARCERATION – PART 4 – SHERIFFS AREN’T THE ONLY ONES WHO SMILE”

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By Tony Casson 

“…they were greedy for money. They accepted bribes and perverted justice.”
1 Samuel 8:3 NLT

“A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”
Senator Everett Dirksen

“He will get out with $10, a bus ticket and not much else. The chances are that he will resume his life of crime. And somewhere in Louisiana, a sheriff will smile.” Thus ended an article in the June 16, 2012, issue of the “The Economist” Magazine. It was titled “Sheriff’s Delight.” That declaration was followed by this subheading: “While local officials cash in, convicts lose out.”

Like millions of other Americans, I lived most of my life not giving this nation’s prison system much thought. I assumed that only bad people went to prison and if they were sent there for long periods of time, there must have been a reason for it. I never wasted a moment in consideration of the rationale for the lengths of sentences; how prisoners were treated while they were locked up; what caused them to wind up in prison in the first place; what steps were taken to educate and rehabilitate them; or what became of them after their release.

Times change. People change. Perspectives change. When I foolishly became a part of what I never had given much thought to, everything changed. Sometimes it takes unfortunate circumstances to bring important issues into focus.

So now, from the very bowels of that system I never gave much thought to, I find myself reading this article which is centered on the unique nature of the number of people who have been sentenced to state prisons but are being housed in parish jails run by local sheriffs. (In Louisiana, a county is called a “parish”.)

In the 1970s, faced with federal orders to relieve overcrowding and unwillingness on the part of the citizens of Louisiana to fund more prisons, parish sheriffs were convinced to expand their facilities to accommodate the overflow. They did this willingly, able to demonstrate to those who controlled the parish purse strings that this could prove to be a profitable venture for them. While the public could refuse to fund more prisons, the state government was free to contract with each parish to pay a daily fee to house the prisoners it didn’t have room for. The more prisoners from the state that a parish could house, the more money they could save on their own budgets because while the state paid $24.39 per day per inmate, the parish didn’t spend anywhere near that. The excess was used to ease the parish’s own cash crunch and to expand the sheriff’s departments.

According to “The Economist,” an astonishing 52% of Louisiana’s state prison inmates are being held in facilities designed to hold human beings for no more than one year. Many are held for 10 years and there is limited mobility, almost no outdoor activity and rehabilitation and re-entry programs are almost non-existent.

A similar situation is developing in California where federal judges have ordered state prison census levels to be reduced to eliminate overcrowding. The only available solution is to send the overflow to county jails. Cash-strapped local sheriffs will be only too eager to take them in and receive a daily amount to house each one. This will make the chaining of a human being less about justice, rehabilitation and positive re-integration into society and more about the big dollars local sheriffs will see contributed to their coffers. For example, since the practice began in Louisiana, a small parish in the north of the state, Richland Parish, has had the cash to expand its sheriff’s department from 60 deputies to over 160, with new cars, shotguns, radios and bullet proof gear, according to “The Economist.”

Louisiana is no stranger to making money from the chaining of human beings as its use of slave labor is well-documented. Perhaps less well-known is the fact that Angola State Prison was first known as Angola Plantation, named after the area from which the slaves who worked it came. When forced to accept the fact that slavery was soon to become nothing more than an unpleasant part of this nation’s history, Angola Plantation was converted to Angola State Prison. But always with an eye to profits at the expense of someone else’s misery, a thriving business in “rental convicts” began that resulted in profits for those both being paid for the rentals and those doing the renting. Unfortunately, the abusive treatment, poor quality of food and lack of health care resulted in the deaths of thousands who were easily replaced by an abundant supply of those who had the bad luck to be close at hand.

As our nation entered a period of prison reform, this practice was ended, but prison industries sprang up that were ordered by courts to pay prevailing wages but then were allowed to subtract most of it as reimbursement for the cost of incarceration, leaving the inmate pretty much where he was when he started.

In the mid-1970s, though, an awakening was occurring. The birth of America’s prison/industrial complex began in earnest as individuals and companies looked for ways to profit from the incarceration of more and more of America’s citizens. With the formation of the American Legislative Exchange Council, the declaration of wars on crime and drugs and the birth of the private prison industry, this nation was off and running on its way to incarcerating more individuals over the next 30 years than it had in the previous 200.

But many people have tapped a mother lode that has produced the American Dream for them while others live trapped within the American Nightmare. One example of the fortunes made since conscious efforts to lock up more and more people began lies with a company out of St. Louis, Missouri. Keefe Co. was begun in 1975 selling only two products to local jails: single use packages of Nescafe Instant Coffee and Tang drink mix. Today, Keefe is a multi-billion dollar company carrying over 5,000 national and private label products to supply local, state and federal institution commissaries. They have a huge website touting the services they offer which include computer software and inmate fund handling. Keefe Co. has numerous divisions, all privately owned, that produce and package a host of food items.

Keefe Co. is not alone, but they are definitely one of the larger success stories. Predictably, a huge array of companies and individuals jumped on the backs of those given up for lost in order to cash in and get their share of this huge pie. Bob Barker, of The Price Is Right fame, formed Bob Barker Company (BCC) and obtained contracts to provide institutions with an assortment of cheap clothing, footwear, and toiletry items. Poor quality is what you get when you see Bob’s name on something, but I guess that’s why the price is right.

Pro football Hall of Famer Dan Dierdorf lent his name and likeness to a line of shaving products for institutional use. And school and office supply manufacturer Skilcraft obtained handicapped-hiring contract preference by printing an association with various “Lighthouse for the Blind” groups on their highlighters, markers and bags of pencils sold to institutions such as the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

Much has been written about companies that profit from other people’s pain; companies that lobby for longer prison sentences and then make profits off of those receiving those sentences. Joel Dyer wrote “The Perpetual Prisoner Machine: How America Profits From Crime” in 2000. Mr. Dyer paints a very vivid picture of greed, manipulation of the public and exploitation of prison labor.

The companies that profit are numerous and diverse, from Tyson Foods, Kraft and Frito-Lay to Ben E. Keith and Sysco. Banks, toiletry manufacturers, various independent meat packers and food brokers, companies selling air conditioning systems and food preparation equipment – everyone has their fingers in the pie.

Politicians convince a trusting public that this is what it takes to be safe as increasing amounts of taxpayer money is used to fuel the voracious appetite of a hungry monster created and sustained not for the safety of the public but for the greed of unscrupulous businessmen who exhibit the same lack of concern for humanity as those willing to displace 160,000 refuges in order to get cheap land in Africa. (See “The Iowa State Affair.”)

Let there be no mistake – fortunes ride on the backs of this nation’s prison inmates. If you think there is not big money at stake here, consider this: in 1982, the total local, state and federal expenditures for the entire criminal justice system (all police, courts, judges, jails and prisons in the country) was a little under $36 billion dollars. In comparison, those same expenditures in 2006 were over $214 billion dollars. In a different example, let’s look at the total in 2012 of just state and federal prison operations: those costs were over $77 billion dollars. In order to incarcerate American citizens, the United States spent more than France ($61 billion), the United Kingdom ($57 billion), Russia ($53 billion), and Saudi Arabia ($43 billion) spent on their entire national defense budgets in 2010.

Sadly, we have come to expect nothing less from a country that incarcerates more of its citizens than anywhere on the planet.

When it comes to the sound of a cell door slamming behind another incarcerated person in this country, sheriffs are not the only ones smiling.

We’ll look at the opportunities to salvage lives that are lost while people are serving their sentences in the next installment of “America’s Culture of Incarceration.”

            More tomorrow…

“AMERICA’S CULTURE OF INCARCERATION – PART 3 – PREPARING AMERICA’S CHILDREN FOR PRISON”

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By Tony Casson 

“My future is in your hands.”  Psalm 31:14 NLT

“The hardest job kids have today is learning good manners without seeing any.”  Fred Astaire

Our children are the future of this country and that future has two faces: the bright, sunny faces of hope and the dark, cloudy faces of despair.

The faces of hope will yield our doctors, teachers, scientists, nurses, technicians, mechanics, farmers, spiritual leaders, inventors, factory workers, butchers, bakers and perhaps even a candle-maker or two. The faces of hope will also yield our lawyers, businessmen, civic leaders, legislators, police officers, judges, military personnel and those few who will rise to the presidency of the United States.

But America’s future will also yield those who will wear the faces of despair. Wearing that face will be the children who grow up to be drug addicts, alcoholics, rapists, murderers, liars, cheats, thieves and those who abuse and prey on the young, the weak and the elderly in all sorts of despicable ways.

Debates rage over the proper way to raise children to protect them from themselves, from bad influences and to help them grow up to be one of those who wear the face of hope. Regardless of the opinions offered, it is generally agreed upon that a two-parent home in which a child is shown love, receives a good education and proper nutrition and is given positive feedback, correction where necessary and opportunities to succeed would be considered a good place to start. In my opinion, adding a love of God and a basic understanding of the teachings of Jesus Christ and instilling a desire to serve humanity would also add to the potential to wear the face of hope.

No matter the nature of the “correct” environment, there are no guarantees. Sometimes human beings are simply wired wrong or are more susceptible to addictions or bad influences than others. We can never have all the answers, but we can be sure of this: children who are neglected, beaten, abused or live in poverty – those who receive inadequate nutrition and experience very little in the way of positive examples to follow have a decidedly poor chance of wearing anything but the face of despair. And these are the children of America who are being prepared – with no small measure of forethought by some who lead our country – to spend some portions of their lives in a prison or jail. Those born already wearing the face of despair stand a good chance of becoming fodder for the monster with the insatiable appetite created by “America’s Culture of Incarceration”.

In this, the richest, smartest, strongest and most advanced nation on earth, the only faces of despair should be the exceptional, unforeseeable ones and not those created by poverty, lack of education, neglect and abuse. Every child born in America should wear the face of hope. To allow conditions to exist which deny that face to any child is to say, “We are preparing this child for prison”. The notion that children are knowingly being prepared for prison may sound ludicrous to some, but there is an undeniable link between children born into conditions such as the ones I have stated and a life of criminal behavior that leads to incarceration. I propose that, for many, the American Dream is so far out of their reach at birth that they immediately begin experiencing the American Nightmare.

In a country where the richest 400 individuals have more wealth than the bottom 150 million combined, 25,000 school-aged children should not be homeless… in one state. And yet that is the number of homeless children for whom radio station KAJN in Alexandria, Louisiana was trying to help obtain back-to-school backpacks recently. According to the U.S. Education Department, for the first time, the number of homeless students in America topped one million by the end of the 2010-2011 school year. To top it off this count doesn’t include homeless infants, children not enrolled in school and homeless students that schools simply failed to identify. Basically 1 in every 45 children are homeless! I don’t know how you feel, but I know that this is a horrific statistic for this great country and somehow we need to make these numbers go down to zero!

Children with no proper home, without adequate nutrition and without guidance are forced into a system that is designed to help them fail. If anyone disputes this, I will point out what should be obvious: any system that is not designed for complete success may as well be designed specifically for failure. Hundreds of thousands of kids in this country wake up each day convinced that the only things that loom in their future are prison or death. Does it make more sense to incarcerate them later because we failed them now? Does it make more sense to pay for their care behind bars when they are adults than it does to feed, clothe, house and educate them when they are young? Of course not. But the sad truth appears to be that, while it may not make more sense, it definitely makes more dollars later on for this monster that has been created, nurtured and groomed specifically to turn those we have failed as children into profit centers as adults.

According to data from www.kidscount.org the following is true in America today:

  • 22% of all children live in poverty.
  • 33% have parents who lack secure employment.
  • 68% of all 4th graders are not proficient in reading.
  • 34% live in single parent families.
  • 11% live in high poverty areas.
  • 24% of high school students fail to graduate on time.
  • And just so you know how many children we are talking about, in the 2008-2009 school year there were almost 49 million children enrolled in public schools.

It should be apparent that child welfare and education in this country take a backseat to many other issues. The United States is far from first in providing its children with a quality education and for this, there is no excuse. Claims of inadequate funds are laughable in light of the fact that we always have enough money to inject ourselves into the affairs of other nations; we always have enough money to fight other people’s battles; and we always have enough money to go in and rebuild what we have destroyed doing those two things. And we always have enough money to incarcerate the adults we didn’t have enough money for as children. We cannot find the funds to give every child the face of hope, but we can find the money to deal with them after they put on the face of despair that was avoidably thrust upon many of them. While we cannot find the money to feed, clothe and house at-risk children – and while we are constantly reading about cutbacks in education budgets – lawmakers continue to advocate harsher and more draconian prison sentences in the nation that has the longest prison sentences in the world along with the most people serving them.

In every instance where more money has been spent on education, the results have been positive: higher graduation levels; higher percentage go on to college. In Washington, D.C., KIPP (Knowledge Is Power Program) Charter Schools differentiate themselves from public schools in many ways:

In Washington, only 43% of students graduate high school and only 9% go on to get a college degree. KIPP claims a graduation rate of 93% and also claim that 80% go on to college.

What are the differences? Here are a few:

  • KIPP claims expenditures of $1,000 over public funding, raised through donations.
  • More time in the classroom: school until 5PM; school starts in July; Saturday classes 2-3 times per month.

This is just a rough idea of what can be done, but education must be a priority, along with addressing poverty and living conditions. These are real issues that our politicians avoid by focusing on things that sound good but do absolutely nothing but make a bad policy worse (such as Lamar Smith’s Child Protection Act That Doesn’t of 2012).

I earlier gave some disturbing numbers regarding children. Here are some equally alarming statistics regarding adults in one of the nation’s most infamous state prisons, The Louisiana State Prison at Angola:

  • There are 5,309 inmates.
  • 75%, or 3,982, are serving life sentences without parole.
  • The remaining 25% are serving an average of 93 years.
  • The average age at conviction is 35.
  • The average age now is 42.
  • 91% are in for committing violent crimes.
  • 55%, or 2,920, are in for homicide.
  • The most recent budget is $115 million.
  • The cost per inmate per year is $21,661.32.
  • There are almost 40,000 inmates in state prisons throughout Louisiana – the highest per capita prison population in the country, which makes it the highest in the world.

America’s lawmakers need to address this disturbing problem. It is easy to write bills that talk about protection from this group or from that threat. But when the only solution is to lock more people up for longer periods of time, then those lawmakers are actually the first part of the problem that must be solved.

The American people need leaders who are going to take a socio-economic approach to our problems on the front end and figure out what must be done to eliminate preventable faces of despair. We must stop preparing the children of this country for lives wasted as part of a shameful prison culture that is robbing the nation of human resources as well as financial ones.

We must also examine ways of reducing this nation’s prison population by 75% and using billions of dollars saved (about $58 billion) for educational programs, housing, clothing and other needs of the poor, including the use of child protective services. We have to identify parents who are not equipped to be positive influences on their children. Those parents should be required to participate in educational and training programs to help them become contributors to eliminating the despair from the faces of their children.

We reward our legislators – both state and federal – with handsome compensation and benefit packages. It is time they rolled up their sleeves and worked to solve problems and not just sponsor bills to help themselves get re-elected.

All it takes is a presidential election cycle to see where America’s problems lie. America’s problems do not lie with the individuals who break the laws. They lie with those who make the laws. American’s problems do not lie with those locked away behind bars. They lie with those whose political livelihoods rely upon the expansion of this nation’s prison system. America’s problems lie with allegedly mature, educated men and women who view themselves as Republican or Democrat as opposed to American. America’s problems are not solved by pointing fingers or dodging responsibility.

While America’s politicians wave banners like Texas Congressman Lamar Smith’s “Child Protection Act of 2012”, (see previous post titled “The Child Protection Act That Doesn’t”), more and more of America’s children wake up and see only a face of despair when they look in the mirror.

According to the World Almanac, in 2008 there were roughly 70 million Americans under the age of 18. How many of them wear the face of despair? How many of them are being prepared for a life in prison?

More tomorrow…

 

“AMERICA’S CULTURE OF INCARCERATION – PART 2 – THE IOWA STATE AFFAIR”

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By Tony Casson

“The Lord’s light penetrates the human spirit, exposing every hidden motive.”   Proverbs 20:27 NLT

“The greatest danger facing the United States is not a military lag but a slump in personal and public integrity.”  Robert J. McKracken

Summertime is state fair time across America. Hosted in Des Moines, the Iowa State Fair is known the world over as a model of what a state fair should be. The musical “State Fair” was based on the Iowa State Fair which is visited by over one million people each year. Resplendent with the usual sights, sounds and smells of corn dogs, Ferris wheels, livestock shows, live music and the laughter and delighted squeals of children of all ages, the fair evokes memories in the older crowd of simpler, slower times when life seemed a little gentler and the focus was more on the family.

In addition to its highly rated state fair, Iowa is known for being the nation’s number one producer of hogs. No fair in Iowa would be complete without the tantalizing aroma of grilling pork chops filling the air. Additionally, the state of Iowa is closely watched politically throughout the nation so the fair is always a gathering spot for those politicians wanting to demonstrate that they are just regular old folks like everybody else. The Des Moines Register almost always carries a photograph of a political heavyweight or two taking a turn behind the grill pretending to cook fat, juicy pieces of pork. Pork and politicians always manage to come together, don’t they?

No gathering of pork and politicians at the Iowa State Fair would be complete without an appearance by Terry Branstad, Iowa’s governor. Branstad has long been a familiar face in Iowa political circles, having served as a state legislator before becoming governor in 1982. He served an impressive four terms before bowing out in 1998, but was talked into running again in the 2010 election by Bruce Rastetter, who has close ties to Branstad and is viewed as a “political kingmaker” in Iowa.

Terry Branstad was very involved in the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) during its formative years, so Branstad has exhibited his willingness to have a very close relationship with business leaders, corporations and wealthy individuals. But how close is too close? And what honors, rights and riches are bestowed upon one who makes kings?

After convincing Branstad to run for a fifth term following a twelve-year absence, Bruce Rastetter went on to donate $160,000 to Branstad’s campaign, making him the largest single donor. An associate of Rastetter’s, Nick Ryan, chipped in another $67,000 and Rastetter’s brother, Brent, added another $31,000. After the election was won, Branstad rewarded Brent Rastetter with an appointment to the Iowa Environmental Protection Association which monitors and regulates issues regarding pollution and contaminants. One of the major polluters in the state are its many hog producers. Bruce Rastetter, in 2004, merged his Heartland Pork Enterprises – ranked 13th in the state – with Christensen Farms, making the new company the 4th largest hog producer in Iowa. In a state with 20 million hogs, that means one of the state’s prominent producers of pig poop is monitored, in part, by his brother.

The direct reward bestowed upon by Bruce Rastetter for his generous assistance in getting Governor Branstad elected was an appointment to the Iowa Board of Regents. In that capacity, Rastetter has generated a flurry of newspaper reports for working with Iowa State University on a land development deal in Africa that could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in profits for him and his investors. Welcome to “The Iowa State Affair”. And you thought this was about corn dogs and pork chops, didn’t you?

Actually, this is all about the anatomy of America’s nightmare: Political Cronyism, corporate greed and a shameful disregard for humanity.

On August, 1, 2012, The Des Moines Register contained a column written by Ms. Rekha Basu about Bruce Rastetter, a company called AgriSol Energy and the African nation of Tanzania. Mr. Rastetter owns 30% of AgriSol and has recently spent considerable time trying to develop land in Tanzania. Iowa Citizens for Civic Involvement filed an ethics complaint calling for Rastetter’s removal from the Board of Regents for misusing his relationship with Iowa State in furtherance of that plan.

It is a complex issue, but the following are some of the high (or low) points of the story as illustrated in Ms. Basu’s column:

  • Mr. Rastetter and his investors stand to make $300 million dollars on the deal.
  • Tanzanian government officials would give AgriSol 99 year land rights for 320,000 hectares (145,800 acres) at 25 cents an acre.
  • AgriSol claims that it is the government that is setting the price for the land and that they have no control over that.
  • Approximately 160,000 Burundi refugees would be forced off the land in question.
  • AgriSol is paying Tanzanian officials, including one who was in charge of the refugee camps, to be “advisors” on the project.
  • Mr. Kimenyi of the Brookings Institute’s African Growth Initiative has said that such payments “can amount to outright corruption”.
  • Agreements are being made whereby what will eventually be produced will not ever have to be used domestically.
  • Jobs may not be created because AgriSol brings in its own labor and advanced technologies.
  • AgriSol has demanded “strategic investor status” from Tanzania, which would provide it with tax exemptions and a waiver of duties.

Recent reports indicate that public pressure is causing this exploitation of humanity for nothing more than personal profit, to be abandoned for something on a much smaller scale.

Regardless of the outcome of all this, the willingness of America’s politicians and their greedy businessmen cronies to consciously pursue plans to use a disregard for humanity for its economic potential has already been demonstrated quite clearly.

Although AgriSol, Bruce Rastetter and Tanzania have no direct effect on America’s Culture of Incarceration, I use the story to illustrate the mindset necessary to pursue a plan that trades people for profit, such as the one in Tanzania, which created the culture in the first place and continues to feed it voraciously.

While it was Bruce Rastetter who pursued the plan, it was Governor Branstad who – as a reward for Rastetter’s generous campaign support – appointed Rastetter to the position he is accused of abusing in order to pursue it. And if you recall, it was a young Terry Branstad, as a state legislator, who played an important role in the formation of ALEC, which has been more responsible for the American Nightmare that has resulted from America’s Culture of Incarceration than any entity in this country.

Countless business alliances have been forged and billions of dollars in what amounts to blood money has been divided among thousands of American companies and individuals willing to feed at the trough of human misery. Meanwhile, our nation has risen to occupy that inauspicious top spot as the world’s number one keeper of human beings behind bars.

Hundreds of pages could be written on the myriad companies that make money employing the same mindset as that demonstrated in “The Iowa State Affair”. Our public coffers are needlessly drained to commit more and more individuals to absolutely draconian periods of time in prisons and jails throughout this country. No amount of “spin” by our many ethically-compromised politicians should convince decent, hard-working citizens of this country that it is otherwise.

America has too many laws on the books and the penalties for violating them keep getting harsher and harsher with no justification. The senseless, unproductive, lengthy amounts of time spent behind bars does little more than take much needed money from education and other positive programs and put it in the pockets of individuals who are investing in criminal activity in a legal way and profiting from it at the expense of the American public.

For now, we shall say goodbye to Africa, Bruce Rastetter and Governor Branstad, but the governor will appear in a later part in this series that will discuss re-entry and re-integration back into society after being released from prison. But for now, I think Governor Branstad has done quite enough.

I invite you to return when I try to explain how we are “Preparing America’s Children for Prison” in order to keep our prisons filled in the future and keep the American Nightmare alive as we continue to explore “America’s Culture of Incarceration.”

            More tomorrow…

 

“AMERICA’S CULTURE OF INCARCERATION – PART 1 – THE ANATOMY OF THE AMERICAN NIGHTMARE”

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By Tony Casson 

“They are corrupt and their actions are evil; not one of them does good.”
Psalm 14:1b NLT

“We find greedy men, blind with the lust for money, trafficking in human misery.”
Thomas C. Clark

The pursuit of the American dream has halted for millions of people who have had a family member become the sustenance required to feed the appetite of an insatiable prison/industrial monster. For all of them, the American dream has become the American nightmare. Unlike the nightmares that produced imaginary monsters in the closets of our youth, this nightmare is a living breathing thing with distinct body parts that can be identified as corporate greed, political cronyism and a shameless disregard for humanity.

The interests of corporate America and America’s politicians have become so inexorably intertwined as to appear almost inseparable. It is becoming increasingly apparent that powerful corporations and businessmen are selecting our leaders and then pulling their strings or calling in favors that come due as a result of the indebtedness created by their friendship or financial support.

If this diminishing of the lines that should clearly separate the two was not evident before, last year’s irresponsible and indefensible decision by this nation’s Supreme Court that “corporations are people” should serve notice that the final nail has been driven into the coffin that holds the right of the American people to decide the country’s fate, fortune and future.

With the way paved wide, clear and smooth for unlimited individual and corporate contributions to so-called “Super-Pacs” formed to support political candidates, it should be very evident that any notion that American’s leaders are chosen by and indebted to America’s citizens is purely superficial.

Political cronyism and outright corruption has existed since the earliest days of this country’s relatively short history. There has always been an abundance of unsurprisingly inadequate laws prohibiting undue influence on our political leaders. Influence that was purchased through exorbitant donations, expensive gifts and outright bribes was deemed illegal. This nation’s affairs were intended to be handled honestly, out in the open and with the rights and concerns of all American citizens taken into consideration.

The line separating corporate America and the influence of wealthy individuals from our political leaders has always been crossed quietly and secretly as a result of friendships, alma maters and the proverbial “good old boy” network. But the blatant public erasing of the lines, which the Supreme Court just completed, was begun in earnest with the formation of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in 1973.

I wrote about ALEC in “Removing the Chains of Fear,” published here on October, 28, 2011, but the main thrust of this unholy alliance is this: Powerful businessmen and corporations sit together with legislators from every state in the union in private sessions three times a year to discuss, plan and write so-called “model legislation” affecting all facets of American life. Much of the “legislation” that is written directly benefits the very companies and individuals helping to write the laws.

As a result of a piece of ALEC’s “model legislation” dubbed “Stand Your Ground,” several corporate members recently ended their affiliation with ALEC. “Stand Your Ground” was blamed for creating the environment in which an unarmed 17-year-old named Trayvon Martin was murdered by a “Neighborhood Watch” member in Florida. Following the public uproar and the revelation of ALEC’s involvement in the drafting of the legislation, several large corporations such as McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart withdrew from the organization.

Things had already been heating up for ALEC in recent months with attacks by National Public Radio, Bloomberg News and numerous other sources, such as the website www.alecexposed.org, questioning the ethics, if not the outright legality, of the relationship between businesses and lawmakers as those relationships existed within ALEC.

It was in these private gatherings between ALEC’s legislative and business members in the early 1980’s that America’s Culture of Incarceration was born. Once the notion took hold that there were fortunes to be made from the chaining of human beings, two significant things began in earnest: There was a major push begun to lock up more people for longer periods of time; and the concept of private prisons for profit was born.

For millions of American citizens, the American nightmare was about to begin.

More tomorrow… 

“AMERICA’S CULTURE OF INCARCERATION – A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE SERIES”

On By Tony CassonIn AMERICA’S CULTURE OF INCARCERATION3 Comments

By Tony Casson

“Now then, I will reveal the truth to you.” Daniel 11:2a NLT

“There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic.”
-Anais Nin
“The Diary Of Anais Nin, III”

Some time ago, I announced that I was working on a multi-part series on the unfortunate Culture Of Incarceration that has become so much a part of America’s identity in the past 40 years. Here at home, and throughout the world, much has been made of the fact that the land of the free has become the land of the imprisoned.

State and federal legislators enact new laws defining new crimes at an alarming rate each year. The federal government alone has created at least 452 crimes just since 2000, bringing the total of federal crimes to over 4,450. I dare not even inquire as to the number of laws there are on a state level. No one can possibly be expected to know every law and yet the Supreme Court has held that ignorance of the law is no excuse. There is only one exception to that rule and that concerns illegal campaign contributions. How ironic that the only exception to the “ignorance defense” is reserved for those who write the laws.

The more important point is that this country’s state and federal legislators take their roles as ‘lawmakers’ entirely too literally. At the behest of national, multi-national, private, and public corporations and companies, lawmakers have created so many crimes that it has been said that NO person can get through one day without breaking at least one of them.

The series you are about to read covers different aspects of America’s Culture Of Incarceration:

–“The Anatomy Of America’s Nightmare” discusses the advent of the culture partly through the formation of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

–“The Iowa State Affair” demonstrates how the unholy triangle of corporate greed, political cronyism, and a shameless disregard for humanity combine to create, and foster, the mindset that allows the Culture Of Incarceration to prosper and grow.

-Part 3 is titled “Preparing America’s Children For Prison” and discusses how many children seem to be destined from birth to become food for the prison machine.

-In parts 4, 5, and 6, I talk about the political and financial incentives to not only maintain a large prison population, but also increase it through failures in rehabilitation and education while individuals are incarcerated and with the obstacles and roadblocks confronting those who are released after serving their time.

-The final installment is called “The Worst Nightmare Of All” and outlines the additional obstacles, restrictions, and prejudices that face those convicted of ‘sex offenses’ – regardless of the nature of their crime – upon their release.

I will take this opportunity to apologize in advance for any shortcomings or inadequacies in the completeness of these reports. Time, and my own limitations, precludes anything more thorough in such a format. If the points that I DO make fall short in demonstrating that there is a frighteningly large and shameful problem facing America today, then the fault lies with me and the fact that I am not a writer or a journalist. I am just a man in prison trying to make those who care to take the time to read aware of the broad scope, and depth, of this national tragedy perpetrated in the name of justice, but executed mainly for profit.

In the near future, I will be adding supplemental articles regarding constructive rehabilitation, how to remove the obstacles facing felons as they try to reenter society and how this is to society’s advantage, and I will also try to demonstrate more adequately the horrors of this nation’s sex offender registry as it exists today, why it is an embarrassment to this country, and how it can better achieve it’s intended purposes.

All of that said, I invite you to share my thoughts, to share your own, and – if you feel there is any merit to any of this – share it with others. To quote an old friend in the restaurant business, “If you enjoyed it, tell a friend. If you didn’t, please don’t tell ANYONE!”

LETTERS TO HEAVEN

On By Tony CassonIn Letters to Heaven4 Comments

By Tony Casson

Dear God:

There are many millions of people just like me who have turned to you after spending decades in conflict. For my part, I believed that standing with evil was where I was happy, where I was comfortable and where I had fun.

For the decades that I stood shoulder to shoulder with evil, it was easy to rationalize, justify and excuse my behavior. It was easy to refuse to accept that the reason for my being created in the first place was to love you, love and care for other people and to use the time I was allowed on this earth to prepare for the life you have promised us all will follow.

Fortunately, you helped me discover deep within myself, right where you had placed it at my birth, the ability to see the truth. You helped me see the salvation that was offered to all of mankind when You sacrificed Your son and allowed His blood to cleanse us of our sins.

When I had finally decided for myself that the burden of evil had become too great for me to continue to bear, I thought the only way out was to end the life that had been lived so frivolously, so selfishly and so inconsiderately. And when I asked for forgiveness as I thought I was beginning the descent into death, what did You do? You forgave me. You picked me up in Your arms, breathed life back into my body and made it clear to me that I was going to receive an opportunity to embrace Your love and give that love to others.

Although I awoke to the responsibilities I had to face for my years of moral decay, I also awoke to a mysterious joy and peace, a wonderful sense of relief and the knowledge of belonging to something beautiful, glorious and uplifting. I became a part of Your family and from that point forward, I have tried to live up to the responsibility that comes with being a member of that family.

And the responsibility is this: we must conquer evil by doing good. We must love others in the same way that Jesus Christ demonstrated His love for us. We must cast off the evil that speaks to us daily, telling us to judge this person or hate that person. As Christians, we must remember that each one of us was forgiven when we asked for forgiveness, no matter how solidly we had stood with evil before we accepted the glory of living in the goodness that is God. Therefore, we must forgive others and welcome them into the family.

It appears that this is a difficult thing for us humans, Lord. It seems that we tend to think someone else’s offenses are worse than ours. We sometimes question another person’s sincerity when they say that they are tired of listening to the evil one and wish to now open their heart and mind to You.

There is no fence separating good and evil which can be straddled. It is a high wall and one must stand on one side or the other. You have taught me, Lord, that standing on the side of good can be challenging. The willingness of so many of us to embrace things that are contrary to Your teaching is something I struggle with daily. We both know that I am far from perfect and I stumble often, but You always seem to be close at hand to steady or correct me.

I have to admit that I get frustrated sometimes because I just do not understand how we can continue to allow the leaders of this country and the judges that they appoint to constantly remove You from the public eye. I am amazed that so many educated and enlightened men and women can deny that the moral guidance the founders used as a basis for this nation’s government is derived directly from the Word of God, the Holy Bible.

That moral guidance was in the hearts and minds of our founders as they determined how people should live and act towards one another. This is an unchallengeable, irrevocable and undeniable fact of the history of the United States of America. It was George Washington who said, “It is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly implore His protection and favor.” President Washington was a signer of the Constitution against which all laws are held up to ensure that they reflect the intent of the founders of this country. Surely President Washington looked to You for guidance, wisdom and hope as he worked with others to develop the framework upon which this nation was built. Why is it, Lord, that this fact is so conveniently set aside so as to not offend a particular voting bloc, special interest group or even other religions?

When Joseph Story, a U.S. Supreme Court Justice and the “Father of American Jurisprudence” said, “One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is a part of the Common Law,” was he mistaken, Lord? Was he somehow confused? And when he went on to say, “There has never been a period in which the common law did not recognize Christianity as lying at its foundations,” was he making it up? And when he said, “I verily believe Christianity necessary to the support of civil society,” was he delusional or was he a man speaking with confidence about the principles by which this country came into existence?

I understand, God, that You recognized that there must be leaders on this earth; that there must be order and discipline, rules and regulations to be followed and consequences to be realized by those who step outside the boundaries of accepted behavior.

But the leaders of this country have all seemed to ignore Your calls for justice, fairness and forgiveness. The leaders of this country have taken up the call of condemnation and retribution for those who violate society’s codes of conduct and have not only inflicted unnecessarily harsh punishments on those individuals, but have taken steps to extend their condemnation and retribution to their families as well. This, of course, is in direct disobedience of Your teachings.

Please, God, help this nation’s leaders to see that the paths they say point to justice and security actually are leading us all into a quagmire of hate, paranoia and suspicion that is causing the good people of this country to look for evil in everyone they encounter.

The decadence, degeneracy and overall obsession with sex and things sexual in this country is less about criminal behavior and more about the moral destituteness of society brought about by the refusal of our government to concede that our moral consciousness comes from the acceptance of the role of God in the lives of good men and women. The actions of our nation’s leaders and the Supreme Court over the last 60 years have been contrary – if not openly hostile – to the acceptance and acknowledgement of that fact.

In 2011, USA Today published a survey that stated that 75% of all America households own at least one Bible. Perhaps they have all been misplaced.

Of these things I am certain: no one walks this earth who is free from sin; no one is entitled to a greater degree of freedom than anyone else; anyone who hates, condemns or judges another human being and claims to be a Christian is a hypocrite.

I humbly ask you now, Lord, to please show me how to help others find relief from the pain of their indiscretions. Show me how to help calm a country that is whipped into a state of hysterical paranoia by individuals who had a responsibility to make sure that nothing like this ever happened and failed because somewhere along the line, they allowed the moral fiber of this nation to dissolve.

“Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”
Martin Luther

I thank you, God, for watching over me from above to see danger approaching. I thank You for standing in front of me, encouraging me onward. I thank You for standing beside me to keep me on the right path and to steady me if I stumble, and I thank You for standing behind me to block the past and to encourage me to always look forward.

AMEN

“ALL IN THE FAMILY”

On By Tony CassonIn All In The Family, Inmates - In Their Own WordsLeave a comment

By Anonymous

“Good night, Sweet Prince.
May a chorus of angels sing thee to thy rest.”
William Shakespeare

Tony Casson has written eloquently in this space about the American mania for incarceration and the many ways that it affects both those who are locked up and those who love them and have been left behind to fend for themselves. So I thought it might be fitting that I write about my own experience being cut off from my family.

I am originally from Southern California and moved with my wife and son to Little Rock, Arkansas in 2007 to be closer to our grandchildren. My daughter and her family remained in California as did my brother, sister and nephews.

After I was arrested in 2009 and sentenced early in 2010, I was sent here to Oakdale, Louisiana, even though there are prisons closer to both Arkansas and California. The Bureau of Prisons claims that they recognize and support the importance of family in the rehabilitation of inmates and for that reason, they maintain a policy of locating prisoners within 500 miles of their families. Since Little Rock falls within that radius, the BOP is technically adhering to policy.

However, not long after my arrest, my wife announced that she would be divorcing me. (That divorce was finalized on September 25, 2012). She has never visited me since I was locked up. My son has moved back to California, so effectively I have no family left in Little Rock. Since coming to Oakdale, I was visited by my daughter once in September 2010. My sister visited in February 2011 and my first wife, the mother of my daughter, came from Colorado to see me earlier this year. Those are the only visits I have had in the nearly three years that I have been a prison inmate.

When I first arrived here, I inquired as to how I might obtain a transfer to FCI Terminal Island in Southern California where I might be closer to my daughter, my brother, my sister and nephews. I was told that I had to remain here for 18 months before any transfer request would be considered.

As soon as that year and a half was up, in November of 2011, I filed for the transfer. Owing to a series of bureaucratic foul-ups and a change in staffing, my request languished in a desk drawer for two months. Finally, in January of this year, my application went to the BOP and was denied on the basis of overcrowding. I had heard that many such requests were being turned down for that reason, so I had enlisted the aid of a friend on the outside to monitor the census at Terminal Island on the BOP website. Six months prior to my application, there were 1,128 inmates housed there. During the week in which my application was denied due to “overcrowding,” the count stood at 1,054. I was told I would have to wait for another year before I could reapply. I was disappointed, of course. But it wasn’t the end of the world.

Seven months ago, my brother informed me that he had been diagnosed with lung cancer. He began a series of aggressive chemotherapy treatments, though the doctors had pronounced his situation “dire”.

I know if I had still been a free man, I would have been on the first available flight to California to be there for him; to help him through this excruciating experience in any way I could for as long as necessary. So my first reaction was anger; anger at myself for having put myself in a situation where I could not act on my instinct to go to my brother; anger at the Bureau of Prisons for refusing my request for spurious reasons. Thanks to them, I would never see my brother again.

I write these words at 9:19 pm on Friday, September 28, 2012. Less than ninety minutes ago, I was informed that my brother had died at 4:45 this morning. My nephew had called the chaplain’s office at 10 am, only to be told that the chaplain was “in a meeting.” He called again at noon and was told that the chaplain was still unavailable. My nephew asked that he be permitted to leave a message for me. I got the message eight hours later.

I am raw. I am distraught. I am profoundly angry. But I have no place to put that anger except on these pages.

When I knew the end was near, I wrote some words for my nephew to read at his father’s service because the federal prison system does not allow us to attend the funerals of our loved ones. I called my brother six days ago and read my words to him. Since they were written to him, I thought it fitting that I share them with him while he was still able to hear them and so I did. He thanked me and we shared an emotion-filled moment together. It turned out to be the last time I would get to spend with him. I don’t think he would mind if I shared those words with you here:

TO MY BROTHER

It seems impossible that you are no longer there. You’ve always been there. From the first second I slipped into this world, you were there – my big brother. When I travelled a winding and often dark road as a child, you were right there with me, sharing both the laughter and the sorrow; the smiles and the tears; the triumphs and the pain.

Even when time and distance separated us, you were still my brother and the bonds that were forged early in our lives held us fast.

What I will carry with me always is that you were a good and decent man. In my estimation, there is no better thing in this world that anyone can be.

No one in this life makes all the right choices, but you always aimed for that lofty goal. When, as a single dad, you found yourself unable to provide your sons with the level of care and structure you wanted for them, you made certain that they were cared for by someone who loved them every bit as much as you did. The fact that it was the right decision is borne out of the reality that they grew to manhood with the same qualities of gentle kindness and innate decency that you carried throughout your life.

It is one of the great regrets of my life that I cannot be there today with the rest of those who have loved you, sharing in the celebration of your life and the grief over your passing. And so I send these words in the hope that you are present in the spirit and bearing witness to the outpouring of love for you that is well earned and deserved.

I believe that the life energy that inhabits us all and that leaves us at life’s end is recyclable. If I’m right, you’ll be back – and so will I and so will everyone here today. It will be a whole new party and we’re all invited. Until that time, rest well, my dear brother. I love you – now and always.

“Unnecessary Harm And Confusion – Fast And Furious, The Sequel”

On By Tony CassonIn Fast and Furious, Letter to "Our Leaders", Volume 31 Comment

“For this lawlessness is already at work secretly, and it will remain secret until the one who is holding it back steps out of the way.” – 2 Thessalonians 2:7 NLT

“For my part, I think it less evil that some criminals should escape than that the government should play an ignoble part.” – Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Olmstead vs. The United States (1928)

Attorney General Eric Holder said recently that a 471-page report by Inspector General Michael Horowitz made it clear that he took immediate action to stop the tactics used in the seriously flawed “Fast and Furious” gun-walking operation once he learned about them. In fact, according to the September 20, 2012 Wall Street Journal, Holder denounced those who were “so quick to make baseless accusations that turned out to be without foundation and that have caused a great deal of unnecessary   harm and confusion.”

The “unnecessary harm and confusion” that may have been caused is nothing compared to the totally unnecessary harm and confusion those 2,000 illegal weapons Holder’s employees negligently allowed to fall into the hands of dangerous criminals will cause to untold individuals and their families.

When will this nation learn that anytime those who are charged with upholding the law place themselves above the law and employ tactics that border on criminal acts to catch individuals in criminal activity that they created, the public winds up paying an exorbitant price? No matter what lofty goals were envisioned; no matter what eloquent explanations are given, placing 2,000 “mostly variants of AK-47 rifles” into the hands of men predisposed to use them is an act that I feel confident saying Justice Holmes would classify as “ignoble.” And that would be if he were being beneficent.

For any agent of the United States government to promote illegal activity to combat it goes far beyond being “ignoble” and approaches an act that teeters on the edge of criminality.

The congressional probe of Operation Fast and Furious was led by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rep. Darrell Issa of California. Both expressed “outrage and indignation” over the incident and called on Mr. Holder to “hold people accountable.”

Jason Weinstein, a top aide to Assistant Attorney General Lanny Breuer, resigned from the Justice Department on September 18. Kenneth Melson, former ATF Acting Director, retired from the Justice Department on September 19. The ATF, according to the Journal, said it would “use the report to pursue disciplinary investigations which could result in firings or other administrative sanctions.”

Perhaps Senator Grassley and Representative Issa can now be persuaded to “express outrage and indignation” regarding an even more “seriously flawed” operation being conducted by the Justice Department. I refer to the ongoing efforts to ensnare those who would look at child pornography. I say “seriously flawed” because the current approach to solving the problem of the spread of child pornography, can never achieve results other than negative ones that cause ‘unnecessary harm and confusion.” These results include the totally unnecessary incarceration of tens of thousands of individuals; the effective destruction of their families; and – most important of all – the inadvertent aiding in the distribution of child pornography not only to adults but to children as young as 11 years old. Eleven years old is the average age at which children are exposed to Internet pornography and, sad to say, if one can find pornography, one can find child pornography.

At the Reform Sex Offender Laws (RSOL) National Conference in early September in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Senator Cisco McSorley of that state said, “I am sick and tired of politicians who won’t take a stand on controversial issues.”

Perhaps Senator McSorley can get together with Senator Grassley and Representative Issa and stand up to do the right thing, which is to demand that the Justice Department and Internet Service Providers move immediately to end the “unnecessary harm and confusion” that this preventable pandemic causes in America each and every day. The victims suffer; the families of victims suffer; the families of those incarcerated for viewing these images suffer; those arrested suffer and society itself suffers immeasurably.

Given the fact that much of what transpires today is preventable, I am not sure that “harm and confusion” even begins to come close to describing the avoidable carnage wrought by another “pattern of serious failures” in this tragic chapter in American history. More jail time is not the answer.

More people in jail is not the answer. The answer is to eliminate the images; to stop them from entering this nation’s homes in the first place; to use available technology to prevent, not promote illegal activity.

Justice Holmes also heard another case in which he made a comment I find particularly relevant. The case was Schenck vs. the United States (1919) and it was a famous one that concerned an individual’s right to free speech. Justice Holmes said that the Constitutional right of free speech did not give an individual the right to stand up in a crowded theater and shout “fire”, creating a panic.

Any time discussions are entered into concerning the blocking of anything on the Internet, the subject of free speech emerges. Let us consider the words of Justice Holmes in “Schenck”: The question in every case is whether the ”words used are used in such circumstances and are of such a nature as to create a clear and present danger that they will bring about the substantive evils that Congress has the right to prevent.”

In this case, child pornography constitutes “the words.” The “clear and present danger” to this nation by child pornography can hardly be disputed. The “substantive evil” that child pornography brings into this country’s homes is not only the right of Congress to prevent, it is Congress’ duty.

Let us hope that Mr. Grassley, Mr. Issa, Mr. McSorley or any of the other men and women elected to serve the people of this country stand up and address this problem in the right way.

They have the power to lock the door on child pornography. And they must.

“The Faces of Felons: Two Faces of Youth”

On By Tony CassonIn Faces of Felons, Volume 32 Comments

“Has she brought up her children well?” – 1 Timothy 5b NLT

“Children begin by loving their parents; as they grow older, they judge them, sometimes they forgive them.”  – Oscar Wilde

I haven’t written one of these segments in a long while. Perhaps the rapidity with which the faces come in and out of focus became too much for me; it’s really impossible to say. As you will see, only one of the faces I referred to in the title is known to me and I hope it stays that way. I see too many of these youthful faces in here and it weighs heavily on my heart and mind.

Perhaps I shouldn’t care. Perhaps none of it should bother me at all. It certainly doesn’t seem to bother those who send them here. Quite possibly, by the time the stories of these two young men have been told, we will all understand why I care. And if I do my self-assigned job well, you will care too.

I will have to call the young man whom I do know by a name that I’ve invented. So let’s invent him as an Albert. Yes, that works since I don’t know an Albert. And let us just pretend that Albert comes from Utah. These are the first and only untruths that I will tell you about him.

Albert recently saw the passing of his 21st birthday. Notice I didn’t say “celebrated” because Albert doesn’t do much celebrating these days. He is a big, soft gentle person who reminds me of a giant panda. He has black hair and white, white skin. His face is marked by moderate acne, some of which would probably clear up if he spent some time in the sun. Hair sprouts from all visible parts of his body – not extremely dense, just there, everywhere his skin is exposed.

Albert is about 5’10” or 5’11” and has big bones that are covered with a thick layer of flesh that is not toned enough to be called muscle, but not exactly soft enough to be called fat. He is just big and soft and slow moving, like that giant panda I mentioned. His eyes are a pleasant light green and are clear, displaying intelligence but also betraying sadness. His voice has a slight nasal tone to it and his words are spoken with a peculiar laziness that makes it seem as if it requires an effort to speak. The sadness that is betrayed in his eyes is also evident in his speech, accompanied by an undertone of defeat. In conversations Albert always has more questions than answers, as if this is all a big puzzle to him that he is having trouble putting together.

I cannot offer a physical description of the other youthful face I am writing about since I have never laid eyes on him. I can tell you that he is 20 years old and his name is Sidney Holloway Perry of Pulaski County, Arkansas. I did not invent Sidney’s name or make up where he is from. I learned these things from the August 11, 2012 edition of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Neither young man had a criminal record prior to their current problems. They were both arrested for possession of child pornography at around the same age. From the moment of their arrests onward, their treatment in the judicial system was as different as night and day.

Sidney Perry of Maumelle, Arkansas was a very lucky young man. According to the newspaper article “Federal Prosecutors declined the case because of (his) age.” This left it in state court and while Sidney was apparently facing 20 years, Judge Barry Sims sentenced the young man to six months in jail, followed by five years of probation for two felony child pornography convictions. The judge sternly informed Sidney that he would go to prison for those 20 years if he repeated his behavior. Fair enough. There was not a tremendous amount of detail regarding his background or upbringing, although the judge excoriated Sidney’s mother and father and felt they were to blame for not properly supervising Sidney, who had been “diagnosed with depression” attention deficit disorder and some cognitive difficulties. He also had dropped out of school in the 9th grade. Judge Sims actually compared “their inattentiveness to abandoning a child on the street with drug dealers.”

Sidney’s mother, Julie Ann Holloway, was the director of the Arkansas State CASA Association, which serves children who are in the court system after being removed from homes because of abuse or neglect. “You are a child advocate,” the judge said, “but you haven t done anything to help him? If I were you, I would resign today. My anger is directed at you. I want to help him if I can.”

“I want to help him if I can.” Praise God and thank you, Judge Sims. If only you had been around for Albert.

Perhaps I should have pointed out earlier that Albert gave me permission to identify him and name the state he was from. Since Albert’s story involved other members of his family, it was my decision to mask his true identity.

Albert’s story actually begins with his older brother who was sexually abused by a male babysitter when he was eight. The sitter, according to Albert, “wasn’t quite right. . . there was something wrong with him mentally.” The abuse to Albert’s brother was detected not by his parents but by his aunt who “noticed something was not right.’ She fired the babysitter. Nothing else was done at the time. It was shortly after that when Albert’s brother began sexually abusing him. He was five years old. His brother was nine. The abuse continued until Albert was 14.

According to Albert, his mother knew his brother was abusing him “for years but didn’t say anything.” It wasn’t until later that the older brother received counseling, but there was none to be had for Albert “because by then we didn’t have any more money.” I didn’t dig in to how it all came to light or what prompted the counseling, but Albert did say that the abuse was mentioned in court.

The one day I really had time alone to talk with Albert, we R ran into each other in the rec yard. He joined me as I made my way around the track and the conversation just started. One of the things we discussed was whether or not his family was spiritual and Albert said, “Very.” But then he chuckled in a manner that belied more than a little cynicism as he said, “It was kind of a screwed up church we belonged to, though.” The church, he said, had been through four pastors in 10 years; two had been arrested for child molestation, one had been fired for having affairs with female members and one had been fired for sexual harassment, pressuring unwilling female members of his flock into having sex with him. “Kind of screwed up” indeed.

As we continued our walk, I asked if he minded telling me how a 13 year old boy becomes addicted to pornography – and child pornography at that. I had known from an earlier conversation that this was the age at which all of this had begun but we hadn’t had the chance to go into further detail. He said he didn’t mind talking about it and told me how adept he was at using a computer, as many young people are today. This was around the period at which the sexual abuse by his brother was coming to an end and perhaps this was serving as some sort of substitute. His computer was located in the privacy of his bedroom and he began, quite simply, with Google and progressed to following links to various sites where files were shared.

I inquired about parental involvement and monitoring and he replied that they tried but he was better at hiding his tracks than they were at following them. He also told me that his mother caught him one time and moved his computer into the dining room where his activities could be monitored. He said he “made too much noise and it was too inconvenient for everyone” so the computer was returned to the privacy of his room.

It is becoming apparent that the ISPs, and therefore the authorities, are aware of who is doing what where child pornography is concerned, so it is just a question of who gets the most attention and I guess Albert was the lucky one. Well . . . not as lucky as Sidney. The federal government did not decline prosecution due to Albert’s age and lack of criminal record. Nor was any consideration given to the abuse he had experienced or any reports from court appointed psychologists that suggested Albert was not a pedophile, not a risk to children and at low risk of repeating his offense. Albert obviously needed help. He needed someone to help him get his thought processes back on track.

What Albert did get was nine years in prison and ten years of supervised release. By the time he is released, he will have spent almost a third of his life behind bars. The insanity of all of this is mind-numbing. The irresponsible manner in which the government of this country is treating this issue is so pathetically ineffective and destructive as to be beyond comprehension.

I cannot do this young man’s story justice. I am not that good, nor do I have enough space. I can only cry out in his behalf and try to make people aware that there are many confused, yet harmless young men like Albert who need help, not prison time.

There are enough experts in all of the different fields related to the topic of child pornography who consistently say that there simply is no rhyme or reason for the sentences and abusive treatment and restrictions of registry that are destroying a good portion of this country’s future.

Albert needed a Judge Sims, but there was none to be found when his turn before the bench came. I am sorry, Albert, if I have failed you as so many others in your life have. But I think I can answer that question now as to why I should care: I should care because Albert is a child of God and this is what God would expect of me. I should care because I am sorry for the poor judgment and lack of moral character I displayed and I know so many others are as well.

And I care because my ongoing hope in that caring will cause me to find the right words and somewhere, somehow, someone’s life will change for the better.

God bless you all.

“Talk To Me”

On By Tony CassonIn Inmates - In Their Own Words, Volume 31 Comment

“The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.” – Proverbs 27:9 NLT

“Where there is much desire to learn, there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making.” – John Milton

I have never addressed the subject of the comments of my readers. Or the lack thereof, which is more of the impetus for this little blurb than those I do receive.

First, I want to make sure that you all understand that I do not actually post any of these articles myself. My beloved son, Anthony, my beloved brother-in-law, Larry, and my beloved friend, Diane are responsible for that. I cannot go online and see anything, but your comments are passed along to me and I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to write them. Even those few, (thank goodness) that have not been favorable, I do read, so please write them.

They will all be posted by one of my “editors” unless they are suspected of being “phishing” or presenting a danger to others’ computers. While comments critical of my point of view will get posted, any that are simply hateful invective most assuredly will not. And most definitely any that tell about how an article may have helped or affected someone are welcome.

I am generally a very upbeat, positive, forward-moving individual who doesn’t need to be verbally stroked. Okay, I’m a liar. Stroke me, please. Rub my literary tummy and scratch behind my metaphorical ears. Say anything, but say something, for when people are silent, situations such as those facing this country today are allowed to grow and alter the course of tens of thousands of lives, dangerously and permanently.

To those who have taken the time to offer support, encouragement and even disagreement – I thank you.

And for those who may be wondering, Diane is not my wife, sister, mother, aunt, cousin or other relative. She is just a lovely person who makes her opinions known. I do not pay her. (I should, for all she does. However, I am but a poor ward of the government). And if any of you are feeling guilty for not speaking up, you can make it up to me by sending me a birthday card. I will be 59 on October 25th and 59 cards would be nice.

So let’s see – if all my readers and all of my family and all of my friends send cards, that would be… ummm… plus six, carry the one… okay! I’ve got it! I would be short only by about 42 cards. But what the heck!

Only gold is golden. Silence is simply silence.

God bless you all.