Get out, Get out whereever you are!

“The line, it is drawn, the curse, it is cast
The slow one now will later be fast
The present now will later be past

The order is rapidly fadin'
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin'”

                        Bob Dylan

As Bob Dylan said more than 50 years ago, the times they are a changing. Sure, it may have taken a little longer than expected, but in the end common sense prevailed as the government prepares to unloose 6,000 inmates.

Well at least to some extent common sense prevails. There are still a couple questions regarding this progressive move in the right direction. No doubt, many of these soon to be free convicts should not have been jailed in the first place, but the truth is that some of them ought not to be let out on society either. Not, at least, until their “debt to society” is paid in full. Still, I suppose it’s a wheat and chaff decision. You either let them out and some chaff, in terms of more “dangerous” people, along with them or you just keep them all bottled up.

But wait, isn’t the purpose of this whole deal intended to right some wrongs? In doing so, isn’t it just probable that some of the riff will be more raff? Even smart bomb technology isn’t always so smart, after all a human being (HB) has to program the thing. And, guess what? I know this will surprise some of you, but HBs make mistakes. No you say? I say just take a look at the Boulevard upgrade project, literally a path of good intention.

Still, here we have a situation in which some people are going to get a break because a lot of people are going to get the kind of justice they should have gotten a long time ago. Believe me, I am not an advocate of letting bad people out on society.

Far from it.

Yet, I do believe that there have been some serious mistakes made during the so-called War on Drugs, which in reality was less effective than Viet Nam, or Afghanistan. In most cases, they got the wrong guy. And as the bodies piled up inside the prisons, the cost of war continually increased to a point where the burden became intolerable.

Something definitely needed to be done. Consider this the first wave; the Feds say there are another 40,000 or so who will benefit from early release over the next few years.

The bigger issue to me is what will happen to these people. Our society is not big on hiring ex-convicts and trying to find jobs for this multitude could be as easy as feeding the masses with fish and bread. Driven to a situation where jobs are scarce, and our economy is not that robust, we will have thousands of people who will be trying to “do the right thing” by their families. And yet, no jobs and no opportunities seem to lead to high recidivism rates. Despite what people may say, the leopard does not easily change his spots. The desire to do right may well be there, but the environment can create an atmosphere that pushes these people right back into their old activities.

Nature or nurture?

More than one thing has to change to make this plan work.

It starts with us.