Release All Felons from American Prisons

I spent a fair number of years working as a chaplain inside American prisons of all security grades–including death row. I worked in both men’s and women’s prisons, in the American South and the Midwest. I had a front-row seat to witness the gross injustice of the state and federal “justice system.” In fact, it didn’t take many years to discover the justice system itself was criminal. (If you have no firsthand experience of American prisons, read my book Criminal Justice, https://jacknlawson.com/criminal-justice/ It can be found on Amazon.)

I worked in one particular pre-release “open prison” in Raleigh, NC. It was, for the most part, a place where men who had served 10 or more years in prison spent the final months of their sentences becoming accustomed to the world outside, which for many had changed beyond recognition. By obtaining paid work in the community, they could learn how much the dollar had devalued during their incarceration, largely by paying for their food and accommodation in the “advancement center.” I remember one African-American inmate who had spent 20 years behind bars for the theft of a television. Imagine how he felt when white, wealthy criminals showed up for a few months of easy time? One I cannot forget was the son of a wealthy local businessman who, with some friends, stole a car and a motorbike, drove them to Myrtle Beach, SC where they commited robbery and then torched the car and bike. He received four months of easy time. Talk about criminal justice! Justice is not just blind, but deaf, mute and mentally impaired as well.

And now for the pièce de résistance: Americans are seriously considering putting a convicted criminal (34 felonies), adulterer, compulsive liar, tax-dodger and rapist in the White House. If he deserves to walk away from his crimes unpunished–and even rewarded by the nation’s highest office–then, in this former prison chaplain’s opinion, the American justice system has set a precedent whereby all other felons deserve to walk free. I defy you to prove it should be otherwise.