Thoughts on Parole Board policy

I did a television interview this week on a local cable channel. I don’t suppose many people will see it, but I gave it my all.

The interviewer asked me about Michigan’s high recidivism rate. That’s a fancy word that tells you that many of the people released from prison go back there again.

I couldn’t wait to answer. "The system is askew!"

I talked about the Michigan Parole Board, and laid much of the blame on the board. Let me tell you why.

The Michigan Parole Board members, in their interviews with prisoners being considered for parole, want to hear the inmates confess to their crimes and show remorse. Stop to think about this for a minute.

Prisons are full of con artists. The man/woman who knows how to work the system weeps, wails, confesses the crime, shows remorse, and jumps through all of the required hoops, then wins a parole. Is it any wonder that this rogue winds up in prison again? Does it take someone with a college degree to figure this out?

But then there are the people with integrity in prison. I’m familiar with people like that, because I befriended the late Maurice Carter, who spent 29 years in prison for a crime that he did not commit. He was dying, we were in the Michigan prison hospital, and the CHAIRMAN of the Michigan Parole Board said, “If I would allow you to walk out of this hospital right now with Mr. Tjapkes if you admitted to this crime, would you do it?”

Maurice Carter, (one class act!), looked him in the eye and stated, while sitting on a hospital examination table: “I will never admit to something that I didn’t do.”

Do you see the problem?

I cannot correct it. You can!

The state and federal governments are made up of people you and I have put in office. What are you going to do about it?

Comments

AP said…
The chairman of the parole board says, "The files say you have been locked up here for the past 40 years. Do you feel rehabilitated?"

Red looks at him and says, "Rehabilitated… well, let's see… rehabilitated, I don't have any idea what that means."

The board member says, "That means, are you ready to re-enter society?"

Red says, "I know what you think it means, sonny. To me it is just a made-up word, a politician's word so young fellows like yourself can have a suit and tie to have a job. What do you really want to know? Am I sorry for what I did?"

The parole board member responds, "Well, are you?"

Red says, "There is not a day that goes by I don't feel regret. I look back on the way I was then, a young, stupid kid who committed that terrible crime. I want to talk to him, and try and make him see the way things are, but I can't. That kid is long gone. This old man is all that is left. I've got to live with that.

- From: The Shawshank redemption.

Thank you Doug for speaking up for those powerless to change the system.
August 21, 2008 at 9:17 AM
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