For twenty years now, I have lived every day within the system, The
Criminal Justice System.
For twenty years I have watched, been caught up in and have fought
the corruption that is rampant throughout the entire system; from
the police on the street; through the courts (with over zealous
prosecutors who violate the law in the name of justice and the
judges who allow them to do it) and within the Department of
Corrections (whose policies are supposed to serve for the benefit of
the public but instead, serve only to place society in a greater
peril by creating men far angrier and dangerous then you can imagine
through brutality, depredation and official misconduct; then
releasing us into society with absolutely no chance to reintegrate
and lead a positive productive life.)
For twenty years I have wished for a voice, a voice of reason,
intelligent, just and compassionate. A voice of sanity in a dark and
brutal world, that is but a flicker on the edge of the awareness of
far too few in this, our God-fearing society. Now it seems I'm
finding that voice, my own . . .
Who am I? I am simply "The Unforgiven". I have no degrees or fancy
titles (except that of a convicted felon, for which I don't deem too
fancy.) I have instead, a wealth of experience; experience that can
never be matched by words in a textbook; and desire, the burning
desire to see positive change brought to a system gone hopelessly
awry.
I ask that those who read this to bear with me. I have never
attempted to write anything on as grand a scale as this will be (due
to the complexities of the nearly infinite issues that lie at the
core of this multibillion dollar beast I pray can be exposed and
tamed.) In fact, I've written next to nothing other then letters
(and so few of those that my girlfriend (Doing Time) keeps
threatening to make me single again!) I am a talker, not a writer
and the transition have frustrated me to no end.
Before I begin this little odyssey of mine, let me state for the
record my position on "the system":
Crime cannot be tolerated or condoned by anyone. Thus, "the system"
is an absolute necessity. Laws are a must to protect the innocent of
any society from the many types of predators out for personal gains
and/or pleasure. To enforce these laws we must have a police force
vested with any and all authority necessary to ensure said
enforcement. Once arrested, an accused individual must be given a
fair and just opportunity to prove any innocence and this process
must be overseen by lawyers, prosecutors and judges who uphold the
tenant engraved upon the face of this country's Supreme Court: Equal
Justice for All. Finally, there must be a prison system in which
those found guilty of crimes against society can be held separate
from the people they have harmed and the rest of society to whom
they pose a threat due to their criminal nature.
It may seem to you that I have stated the obvious since this is a
system you see as already existing. Now though, I want you to try to
see beyond the obvious into the many cracks that have now weakened
the foundation of the existing system and by extension, the
foundation of our country. Look to the laws of our land. There are
literally millions of pages of law with many thousands added every
year. No one, not the justices of the Supreme Court nor the
lawmakers who vote them into existence, knows them all. And of the
ones that are common, hardly any can agree on their interpretations
and/or applications.
Should we have laws that apply differently for those who can afford
to hire Roy Black or the late Johnnie Cochran then they have for me
because I have no money? No, we shouldn't, but unfortunately, we do.
Now, look at the police. When is the public going to realize that
the Rodney Kings, Maurice Greens (the New Orleans incident) and most
recently, the beating death of 15 year old Marcus Anderson, at the
hands of six or eight Bay County, Florida Sheriff's Deputies at a
youth boot camp; are only exceptions in that they were made public
only because they were caught on film? How many innocent men have to
be cleared by DNA before the truth of coerced confessions and
manipulated evidence is faced? How many innocent men are still in
prison for the crimes other then murder and rape for which there is
no DNA evidence to prove they were wrongly convicted by over zealous
police and prosecutors?
Now look to the courts. How many prosecutors have become public
avengers and violate their own law to aggravate sentences beyond the
legal limits? How many judges allow them to do so instead of
resigning them in as arbitrators of justice? Is it acceptable to
break the law as long as you do so when punishing someone who broke
the law first? This cannot be rationalized by the old adage that
it's acceptable because the criminal preyed on the innocent and the
courts are doing the best they can. (Many criminals are in prison
for crimes against other criminals.) And if you hunted down the man
who raped your daughter and shot him, I guarantee you that the same
prosecutor will put you in prison as a vigilante who took the law
into your own hands, and they will tell the jury that you cannot
break the law just because the rapist did. So why can they violate
statutory sentencing laws or procedures of court with impunity?
Following the law does not mean a judge or prosecutor is soft on
crime and a man convicted of a crime should be able to expect to be
arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced according to the law
without being scoffed at for having the audacity "to do so".
Now look to the Department of Correction. We have a system out of
control. Mismanagement wastes millions of taxpayer dollars and
physical, psychological and emotional abuse is rampant. The recent
shakeup in the FLDOC is now bringing to light what we in the system
have been fighting for years. If the Secretaries of Correction, his
regional directors, wardens and colonels, all of whom have been
running the DOC for years while rising up through the ranks, will
beat an ex-staff member and most of those present will lie for them
to help cover it up. If a captain will rape a female officer at a
party on prison property and no one stops him or helps her, can any
rational individual not accept that these things and worse happen to
the men and women over whom they have absolute control? Why are
there soldiers now in prison for humiliating and scaring prisoners
of war in Iraq but eight guards at Florida State Prison are free
after allegedly beating Frank Valdes to death? (The beating was so
brutal they broke almost every bone in his body and left boot prints
so well defined, the company's name and size were legible.) How does
society allow these criminals to go free but lock me away? Is it all
right to break the law if you wear a badge? Didn't anybody notice
that the stateside jobs held by the MP Reservists were mostly prison
guards? These men are not exceptions, but they are the rule. Those
guards that don't participate in such practices (and there are many
who do not), know these things go on yet do nothing about it and
will, if push comes to shove, help cover it up either through lies
or silence.
What is the point of all this? Why should you care? Why should you
help bring justice to drug addicts and predators? Because two
billion of your taxpayer dollars feed the FLDOC alone. How much more
goes to law enforcement and the courts, I can't even guess. All that
money for a system that doesn't even work. A retooled, refocused
system would not only free up much needed tax dollars for education
and health care, but would go a long way toward actually making the
system work as it should, turning men and women's lives around so
they can become productive members of society and this making
society a better, safer place for your children, your grandchildren
and beyond.
Can this be accomplished? Can it really be done? Yes it can be.
Explaining how, is going to take me some time, a lot of time. To do
so, I am going to try to break everything down into a series of
issues and deal with them one by one. I hope I can keep you
interested long enough to see it through and that somehow the right
chords will resonate within the right minds and something good will
become of it. Again, please bear with me.
'Til Next Time ~
The Unforgiven
They dedicate their lives / To running all of his / He tries to
please them all / This bitter man he is / Throughout his life the
same / He's battled constantly / This fight he cannot win
__________________
Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their
reputations... can never effect a reform ~ Susan B Anthony
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