Once When I Was a Rookie

"Smooth Criminal" by Michael Jackson

...as he came into the window / it was the sound of a crescendo...

I walked by the television today in a daze after a nap. CNN was on reporting a story about hot dogs.

Hot dogs are my guiltiest pleasure ever. I think that they are gross and they perturb a lot. However, there are times in which I crave a hot dog above all else in the world.

The story wasn't about any old hot dogs. It was about a hot dog stand named Felony Franks, owned by an older gentleman named Jim Andrews. The reason for such a name is because he only hires felons.

I thought that was so noble, so unusual though. If you don't know, it can be hard for a person convicted of a felony crime to construct a productive, non-criminal life.

Crimes are punished and American law reads that after a person has "paid his/her debt to society", they can return to the very society they betrayed with a clean slate.

People, employers, landlords, whomever, are not supposed to discriminate or deny those convicted of felonies anything. They have paid for their crime.

However, that is not the case. Those with felonies on their records cannot receive any government assistance. Coupled with employer discrimination, it is often difficult and demoralizing for some to return to society. They are still shunned and in a way continue to pay for their crime.

Some argue, "You should have thought about that before you (insert crime here)". However, many things happen that lead a human being committing a crime of felony classification. Not to say that personal accountability and responsibility are not to be considered, but life is not wonderful for everyone from the go.

Poverty is the primary source of food for the organism that is crime, straight up. And there is an abundance of poverty people. And that is just one source of nourishment.

I guess the thing that really bothers me about the way this culture in particular deals with criminals once freed from jail is that they are somehow no longer human. They are somehow less than human.

Because they committed a crime (everybody breaks the damn law at some point), their happiness, their fulfillment, their goals, their families, their wants, their needs, their hobbies, their psychological health cease to matter.

Everyone wants to have a life they are proud of...a place to stay, a way to make money to support themselves and any dependents they may have, free time to cherish freedom, and more.

But, it is as if no one cares once they have committed a crime. Yes, some of these crimes are heinous and unfathomable, but people do change. People do get better. People are remorseful.

No matter how one may feel about criminals, the empathy they have for the victims, the thing that has to be remembered, that goes wholly unmentioned is that we are all potential felons. Life is a bunch of sliding doors and if things went a little differently in your life, you may have been a convicted felon too. You never know.

We have to remember that these men and women that we reduce to the name "felons", is that they have family members...mothers, fathers, children, cousins, best friends, who want to see them do well. The family has suffered through losing that person to a sideways lifestyle that resulted in prison time. If the institution feels that a person is rehabilitated and releases them, should they not be given the opportunity to assemble a stable life that will prevent him or her from participating in that same sideways lifestyle?

If not, they'll break the law again, so they can eat. Someone will suffer, maybe die. And it is all of our faults.

Now if you want to argue that prison doesn't rehabilitate people and they should therefore not be extended any of these niceties, I'm gon' have write another blog entry. Because that is some mess in and of itself to discuss.