The Tale of a Prisoner Retold; Skooter at the Beginning of Wisdom
. . . Skooter walked out the door that day carrying two plastic trash bags containing the sum total of his possessions. The mountain he must climb still has some peaks yet to be conquered. Prison rules allow for no further contact, by mail or otherwise, with anyone Skooter knew here. He is on his own. When Skooter got to the door, he put his bags down, turned and waved. We'll remember Skooter's smile for a long, long time. And his resolve to claw his way back from the abyss life brought him to, is simply unforgettable. Skooter is gone now, gone from our sight, but not from our souls. Let's hope and pray the Lord has made for him a straighter, smoother path. . . .
Hot Town: Summer in the Slammer
. . . The summer of 1969 had other worries and trials as well. Because of a tragedy in my family - which I will write about one of these days - I had to find a full time job at sixteen. I had one that I thought was secure. It was in a machine shop, but I was laid off just as that summer began. I took the only job that I could find, and it turned out to be the worst job of my life. . . .
In the Land of Nod, East of Eden
. . . Many of the younger prisoners are just lost. There's a clear correlation between their presence here and the systemic breakdown of family - especially fatherhood - in our culture. There is an alarming number of young prisoners here who have had either abusive fathers or none at all. There is a direct and demonstrable correlation between the breakdown of family and the marked increase in prisoners in our society. . . . Anyone who is not alarmed by this statistic doesn't understand the relationship between religious values, family life, crime, and the abandonment of young people to wander east of Eden. Among young men now in the New Hampshire prison system, the recidivism rate is a staggering 57 percent. . . .