9.15.2014

It’s been some time, so I thought I’d write another blog entry for the 10-12 people that read my blogs.  Who knows, maybe it will go viral at some point, right?

So, recently, Mike Tyson made headlines after a completely useless human asked him some stupid questions on a talk show while Mike was promoting his One Man Show.  So basically, Mike spent some time with Toronto mayor, Rob Ford, a man that we are all familiar with, I’d imagine.  The reporter then stated this stupid nugget: “Some of your critics would say, ‘You know, there’s a race for mayor, we know you’re a convicted rapist, this could hurt his campaign.’  How would you respond to that?”  Mr. Tyson then responded in turn: “I don’t know who said that. You’re the only one I heard say that,” Tyson said. “And I don’t have no comment for that, because it’s negative and you’re being negative…and I met the mayor. And there’s nothing they can do about it.”

But that wasn’t it for Mike: “It’s so interesting because you seem like a nice guy but you’re really a piece of shit,” Tyson said.  

So, this scenario really got me thinking about the way that we treat and think about convicted felons in America, and I just don’t think that I understand the system.  So, just to make sure that I at least understand the premise, if you commit a crime (or even if you don’t and the police and prosecutors don’t feel like putting in the work) you go to prison, and after serving your sentence, you are released back into the world to be a productive member of society.  Is this right?

But with a recidivism rate of nearly two-thirds of released prisoners (unfortunately, I do not have access to any information separating felony and misdemeanors), it’s hard to believe that the system is working.

So, why then, is the rate of recidivism, the rate of re-arrest, and the rate of crime committed by previous felons so high?  America has the highest rate of incarceration in the world, so the system can’t be working if we have continually increasing incarceration numbers.  I could easily step into the world of discussing the world of systemic racist laws, which see a drastically higher rate of black Americans going to prison, although there is no evidence that black Americans commit crime at any rate higher than white Americans, or that the way that we currently treat felons is an extension of Post-Slavery Jim Crowe laws that basically prevent a class of citizens from having a voice.  But that isn’t what this blog is about today.  Today, this blog is about fixing our system, stopping the labels that follow someone that has served their time, and about establishing a healthy class of citizen instead of perpetual criminals.

So, my biggest issue all along with prison has been the idea that if you serve your time, then you’re free when it’s over.  You’re never free once you’re a felon.  That title will follow you for the rest of your life, haunting your job prospects, haunting your voting rights, haunting your gun rights, and basically making it impossible to continue living life in the legal arm of society.

I guess my primary issue is the label, “felon” that someone gets when they commit a felony and are then released from prison.  What I don’t get is why that label exists in the first place.  If the person is still a threat to commit more crimes, then why is he out of prison?  If he isn’t a threat to commit more crimes, then why is he being segregated socially?  That’s at the heart of the issue, honestly.  If you commit a crime, serve your time, and are released only to find out that you can’t ever get a decent job, you can’t vote, and society looks down on you, then why even try?

For me, the solution is easy:  Convicted felons are required to serve time until a time that they are no longer deemed a threat, and upon release and an obvious period of time with their parole steps, then they are released completely, their records sealed, and the title of felon is never attached to them again.  Anything short of that is a human rights violation in my world view.

If prisoners were to know that they could escape the miserable existence that led them down the path that ended in prison, then there’s at least a small chance that some of them would take the opportunity to leave the world of law breaking behind them.

This is more of an idea blog than in the past, and as I opened with, it’s because I saw the Tyson interview, and I thought, why in the fuck does that reporter feel entitled to ask about Tyson’s felony past, and why in the fuck would anyone care about