Humanity for Prisoners

  To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable   Ludwig van Beethoven   I made my way to a little nightspot recently, having been told I would hear some fine live music. Sitting next to me at the bar was a fellow musician. After 10 or 15 minutes he said to me, “Every song has the same beat.” I hadn’t been paying that much attention. Sure enough. I added to his statement. “Almost every tune is in the same key!”   I must be fair, here. The musicians were competent. The music was well done. The sounds were pleasant. Nothing out of place. BUT, everything sounded the same! As a musician who prefers creativity, I called it a day a little sooner than usual.   Later that same night, I surfed to a lesser-known cable TV channel, knowing that Bill and Gloria Gaither would be featuring an hour of gospel music. That should cheer me up.   The show featured a popular country/western musician singing old, favorite hymns. But here’...

March 18 arrived. No mention of the significance of the day. Not a word in newspapers. No special tributes or features on TV. Sadly, I almost let it slip by…it was flagged on the wrong date in my calendar.   Well, it’s not too late. March 18 is National Public Defender Day. To add to the trivia, let me tell you about a little-known division within the Department of Justice. It’s called The Bureau of Justice Assistance, and its job is to provide leadership and assistance to local criminal justice programs. That is the office that chose to make March 18 a special day on the calendar.  Public Defenders help those accused people who have no money for a lawyer. In Ottawa County such a plan was approved in June of 2018. The new Public Defender Office became fully operational in 2019.   I can still remember, as a young news reporter, questioning the integrity of those lawyers who chose to defend people on the wrong side of the law. How did they sleep at night, arguing on b...

Stories like this come across our desks every day, and break our hearts every day.   My son called tonight and stated that a new inmate had been added to the veteran's unit in Saginaw prison. He stated that the man has severe dementia and is needing help BAD. He is 74 years old. Today he walked around naked and voided all over himself, and didn’t even know that he had done it. My son was told that the man was put in that unit to protect himself from men in other units taking advantage of him.   Reacting to a report that two lifers had passed away at Women’s Huron Valley, one of our friends wrote: It is so unfortunate that WHV doesn’t even allow us to have any sort of memorial service for our sisters.   In response to the death of a middle-aged resident of a Muskegon prion, a friend says: He was rushed to the hospital with flu-like symptoms. He had delayed going to health-care until it was too late. (This happens often, because of the unfortunate rule that prisoners ...

  The purpose of a writer is to keep civilization from destroying itself.” – Albert Camus   In a telephone chat with one of my friends behind bars the other day, the topic of prisoner pay came up once again. He has certain MDOC certifications that entitle him to a slightly higher pay rate for certain jobs. But, he was transferred to a facility that doesn’t recognize those certifications. He’ll have to settle for the lower pay.   I was discussing the topic with a former prisoner, and he shared a similar story where, upon transfer, the people at the new facility wouldn’t pay the rate that he had been receiving for years at the old facility.   Keep in mind, now, that these prison people aren’t doing their best to balance the prison budget. They’re doing their best to be unkind to the residents of that facility.   This week I received a message from one of the prison dog handlers. “Well, the buggers went ahead and cut the maintenance, upholstery, and all do...