2018 Please write to me, I’m a locked up bad guy

Have you ever seen one of these cyber prison sites, where inmates plead for pen pals and tell how lonely they are? “It’s really lonely here at Christmas. I haven’t had a visitor in 15 years.”

Why are we giving criminals access to the internet? Why do they have e-mail accounts? Who is paying for the phone lines and broadband and dsl lines? Who is providing the computers? Do they have printers? Do the prison staff and legislators think these guys will get jobs using computers if and when they finish their sentence (for murder, rape, robbery, fraud, etc.).

If librarians want to worry about their records getting into the hands of the wrong people (the FBI), maybe they should check to see if these guys can hack their library websites and get the patron records. The photo and house plan of your home and street are on your county web site. Think they haven’t got oodles of time to figure out how to use that information?

I just picked a name at random from one of these lists, and looked up his crime with Google. Seems he’s recently been up for parole. I don’t think he got it, but could the next time. Do you really want him out looking for you, or your bleeding heart teen-ager who thought it might be kind to “visit someone in prison.”

“Last week, the board heard requests by STUV and WXYZ, both convicted in FFFFF County.

STUV was sentenced to death for the [month and year] murders of xxxxxxx, a 48-year-old farmer, and xxxxxxx, 18.”

So I looked up STUV’s appeal. It was a brutal crime--like the ones you see on The Closer or Law and Order reruns. The 18 year old apparently just walked in on it. Seems there was supporting testimony during the trial on his behalf that he had a terrible childhood, was abused, had a long juvenile record before turning to adult crime, and had an alcohol and drug problem. I don’t know how much you know about the criminal justice system, but prison isn’t the place to go to get help for a life time of wretchedness.

Tookie found the only solution for his sin, and it wasn’t a computer.