Transcript
Seven Hot Topics Concerning North Carolina's Prison System Repeat Offenders In our last topic we discussed the psychological issues that plague men (inmates) in prison. That sad truth is that a lot of them will be entering society again not to mention the fact that for some of these inmates its been they're second or third time entering the prison they are repeat offenders. There is no greater epidemic than repeat offenders in North Carolina. I talk on the phone and correspond with men who were ex-inmates and currently have not re-entered the prison system. However they talk to me about some foolish mistakes they've made that could have landed them back into the prison system. I would like to briefly discuss these mistakes. One of the mistakes made by repeat offenders is to surround themselves with the same company of people that influenced them upon entering the prison system. Within any company of people their is a type of life style followed. If that company of people follow a lifestyle of crime, it would be a foolish choice for a man who is released from prison to surround himself with this type of company. However a lot of men who are repeat offenders have made this mistake over and over again. The truth is that while these men were in prison they surrounded or were connected to the wrong group of inmates, throughout the process of time keeping the wrong company of inmates around, turns into a habit (practice) that follows a repeat offender out in society. The power of influence is strong and full of force, it is even stronger and more forceful in the company of people. If an inmate is going to stay out of prison he must be independent in his thinking while surrounding himself with the right company of people under the right influence. Another bad mistake that men who are repeat offenders make is the willful and deliberate act of being indifferent towards internal and external issues that need to be attended to. The vast majority of men who are repeat offenders, were in prison but still had issues like court fees, child support, outstanding warrants in other states, detainers, etc. These inmates are released from prison, and never take time out to look into and handle these issues. Instead they try to live life as if they have a clean record and they run from these very important matters, and they end up back in prison. A good brother of mine was just released from Nash correctional in the month of August in fact we ate a meal together and talked. He went home to Rockymount, North Carolina on a Sunday. We corresponded through the mail a week later, and he was telling me about his DUI charges he caught upon entering the prison system, one in the year of 1992 and a second in the year of 1998. He's had to pay the courts hundreds of dollars in restoration fee's with money he borrowed, and he now has a job, but must go to a hearing in front of a board that will determine the situation concerning his license that have been suspended indefinitely. I encourage him to do that which is right seeing that the wrong choice could make him a repeat offender. Another good brother of mine who is now in a minimum custody facility and has less than two (2) years left, had a restitution fee of three hundred and twenty-six thousand dollars ($326,000) and he received a letter from New York stating that he owes child support to a woman who gave birth to his child and he knew nothing about it. When I asked him about the woman and the child he said its a ninety-nine percent (99%) chance that the child is his and confessed to having sexual relations with the woman when he went to New York to visit family. This brother of mine was in prison for drug trafficking and with two (2) years left he has some serious matters to attend to. If he is not careful he could be a repeat offender. Alot of men become repeat offenders, because they are reckless and negligent concerning external issues. I believe that external issues are the product of internal issues, they (men in prison) choose to walk in denial concerning internal problems and in the fullness of time they become trapped by the same problems (internally) that they're pride suppressed. In prison it is easy to detect the inmates who are incarcerated for drug trafficking, you can find them at the gambling table trying to satisfy an internal problem "lust for money." Nobody likes being without money, and it is a necessity in this country. However to go beyond the bounds of making an honest living as a law abiding citizen, to obtain money then you have a problem. Men who are in prison for sexual crimes against women are easy to detect as well. You can find exposing themselves in a hideous, unnatural offensive manner towards female correctional officers as they fill they're minds with pornographic images. The list of internal problems concerning repeat offenders goes on and on, if these internal problems are not confronted and treated a man (inmate) will find prison to be a revolving door to him and life itself would be unbearable! What I am about to say next is sad but true, there are some men in prison (in this generation many men) who will die as repeat offenders. Even here at Nash correctional (presently 2016) I am surrounded by men (inmates) who have been through this prison experience four to five times. There is no shame amongst them and they have the desire to change, but because they've become career criminals, the life as a repeat offender has them chained to prison in every way, and they've put themselves in a place of bondage that will not allow them to be free until they crossover to the next life! These men (inmates) have come content, with being a repeat offender and in their hearts they have given up on living and integrity. There is one thing in particular that I have found to be common amongst men (inmates) and that is the willful, deliberate act of not adhering to prison rules (policies) and guidelines. Nothing is worst than being locked up when you are already locked up, meaning even in prison when an inmate who is already in prison locked up but is still rebellious, out of control, and disobedient continues to show that kind of behavior towards prison rules and guidelines he is locked up again. He is placed in a single cell away from the general population in a place called segregation, for a certain amount of days, privileges are taken from him and he must pay ten dollars ($10.00). You see prison is a world within itself and what or when a man is charged and locked away from general society, and then comes to prison, and is charged and locked away from the general prison population then the life of a repeat offender begins. At some point in a man(s) (inmate(s)) life there must be a breaking point. For me that breaking point was at the cross of Jesus after being in the county jail for four (4) days. The beauty and authenticity of life can never stand on the foundation of disobedience. It is a known fact that ninety-five percent (95%) of the time a man (inmate) will commit himself to a way of living and behavior in prison that despite many efforts to change he will continue to follow the same behavioral pattern he followed in prison, out in society when he is released. To put it in more of a fundamental sense, what an inmate does in prison he will do out in society. I here people say that practice makes perfect, but most of the time it is used in positive manners. However the functionality of that statement is the same when it's used in negative manners. If a man in any setting whether in prison or society practices a life of lawlessness, then in the fertility of time he will become perfect in that way of living. It can happen to a man as he leaves society and enters prison, or it can happen to a man (inmate) throughout his prison term, either way when it's complete (perfect) most men (inmates) dont live long. Sometimes the reality of the truth can be ugly, and the truth is that some men (inmates) grow up too late and some will never grow up at all. A repeat offender is not a man (inmate) that commits the same crime over and over again, a repeat offender is a man (inmate) who commits the crime of never changing! (Note: for more information on repeat offenders be sure to read about topic seven (7) the inmates re-entry back into society. Coming soon!) Repeat Offenders
