An Urgent Letter To Governor McAuliffe

The following sample letter was written by one of several DOC inmates with whom I correspond. Please feel free to use any part of it as you communicate your own concerns to the Governor:

Governor Terry McAuliffe

Honorable Terry McAuliffe, Governor
Patrick Henry Bldg. - Third Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
https://governor.virginia.gov/constituent-services/communicating-with-the-governors-office/
Fax: (804) 371-6351

Dear Governor McAuliffe:

News of the recent budget shortfall precipitated our thinking toward a method to save taxpayers' dollars allotted to Virginia's prison system, without jeopardizing public safety. It is apparent that we, the taxpayers, are financing the incarceration of many individuals "who are no longer a danger" to our communities, due largely to their ages. The Virginia Department of Corrections currently houses model inmates that are nearly ninety years old. As I am sure you are aware, statistics are available to backup this claim. These facts are very disturbing to us as human beings.

Currently, there are nearly 2,800 parole eligible 'Old-Law' inmates who have been incarcerated a minimum of 21 years and up to at least 47 years that we're aware of. Many are first-time offenders who have earned and deserve a second chance through parole. If 80% of these inmates were paroled, "a cost-savings of $61.5 million dollars," (2,240 inmates x $27,462 (Footnote 1) ) per year would be realized.

Additionally, there are nearly 600 Geriatric-release eligible inmates with a statistical recidivism rate of less than 1% (Footnote 2) (over 60 years of age). Nationally, the average cost of housing inmates over 50 is $68,000 (Footnote 2) (more for those over age 60). If 80% of geriatric inmates were released under supervision, "a cost-savings of $33 million dollars annually" would accrue, (400 inmates x $68,000). The geriatric population is the fastest growing age group in the system with the lowest recidivism rate and the highest cost to taxpayers.

Ninety-five percent of the 'Old-Law' inmates are over 40 years of age; averaged with geriatric eligible inmates, all of whom are over 60, nets an average age of parole eligible inmates of 50 years of age. Utilizing a mean recidivism rate of 1.5% (2% over 50 and 1% over 60), prisoners who might reoffend amount statistically to "only 41 inmates who might reoffend, out of 2,720 who could safely be released!"

Governor McAuliffe, as you are aware, the rate of parole in the Commonwealth comes under your purview as Chief Executive. Please consider instructing your Parole Board to implement a policy of increasing the parole rate substantially for the following reasons:

> Savings of nearly $100 million dollars annually, with minimal risk to public safety.
> Relieve prison over-crowding and/or closing up to 3 major institutions.
> Allow many elderly and first-time offenders a chance at redemption.
> Use savings to augment education in the Commonwealth (our teachers are paid $7,200 below national average).
> Transform corrections in Virginia to a more forward thinking posture.
> Every offender should be educated, treated and released at the earliest possible time when they are no longer a threat to society.
> Provide services to help returning citizens reenter safely back into communities without the stigma of being an ex-offender looming over them for the rest of their lives.
> At what age or for how many continuous years would incarcerating individuals satisfactory and does not constitute Cruel and Unusual Inhumane Treatment of inmates. We would say no more than twenty years years of reprogramming and training preparing individuals for society. Also anyone who meets the current Virginia Geriatric Law and does not pose a threat to citizens should be granted parole.

We as taxpayers can no longer afford the antiquated, costly, inhumane and excessively punitive system of Corrections which the Commonwealth employs. As recent polls show, the majority of the public is for increased parole. Our current budget shortfall provides you a "Golden Opportunity" to implement the aforementioned bold actions and avoid tax increases.

Thank you for your efforts, time and consideration in the aforementioned matter. A response would be appreciated.

Sincerely,


cc: Mr. Brian Moran
      Department of Public Safety and Homeland Security
      P.O. Box 1475
      Richmond, Virginia 23218
     Office: 804-786-5351
     Fax Line: 804-225-3882

Are We Losing Ground In The War On Porn?

Unlimited X-rated access 24/7

We may have never been very effective in combatting this evil to begin with, but there can be little doubt that an ever darker and more pervasive porn industry is gaining ground. Along with new internet porn sites springing up constantly, high tech means to access them are multiplying as well. Our children and teens can find ways to view almost anything they want on their cell phones, ipads, and other devices. Even some eleven and twelve-year-old boys are becoming addicted, making one wonder how they will ever experience healthy wedded-for-life relationships.

Over time we have become ever more jaded by indecency in general. We have failed to celebrate and hallow our own God-given gift of sexuality and have helplessly watched it being exploited and cheapened on every side. Over the past years network television, for example, has seen an increase of over four times the number of scenes involving nudity and promiscuous sex, according to a report by the Parents Television Council. 

As a nation and even in our churches we are strangely divided over how to deal with this issue. Oddly, it is folks on the political left I hear saying, “Let the market rule. Let individuals decide and let’s keep government out of this.” Meanwhile, those on the right who are urging more government intervention to drive porn out of our communities, to force libraries to protect children by filtering Internet sites and by requiring retailers to keep sexually explicit magazines out of the reach of children.

What can we do?

We could begin by recognizing that this is not just a question about restricting some kinds of speech (outright obscenity is already not protected by law) but whether we can reasonably regulate some forms of commerce. Since pornography has become a multi-billion dollar industry, should it be exempt from some minimal safety, health and marketing standards? Most of this new “speech” is, after all, anything but “free.” People are hired to submit to demeaning and even hurtful acts simply for money, not because they enjoy what they’re doing. The resulting “product” is marketed aggressively and reaps phenomenal profits, not so much for its “actors,” but for its producers and promoters, mostly money-grubbing white males. 

Likewise, we could start by recognizing pornography as not like just any other kind of adult entertainment, but as a product that results in varying degrees of addiction for millions who use it. By way of comparison, it was years before we recognized nicotine addiction as a health problem. Or before we understood the nature of addiction itself as a serious disruption of the reward mechanism in our brains. It was only after we realized some of the social and health care costs of tobacco addiction (for smokers and non-smokers alike) that we began to set strict age limits on who can purchase nicotine products. We also began to regulate how and where these products could be marketed, and even put warning labels on tobacco products. 

The National Council on Sex Addiction and Compulsivity estimates that some two million Americans have become addicted to cybersex alone, costing the economy millions in lost productivity and jeopardizing the ability of users to maintain healthy real-life relationships that benefit us all. Researchers like feminist Dr. Diane E. H. Russell of Mills College (Oakland, CA) point out that the industry not only degrades women but is subjecting more and more of them to outright violence, both in the production of much of today’s pornographic material and in the rape fantasies it creates in men who regularly get pleasure from seeing images of women being used--and even criminally abused--on screen. There are few signs of “safe sex” anywhere in this picture.

So at the very least we need to exercise our good First Amendment rights to urge our becoming a porn-discouraging, rather than a porn-encouraging, society. After many years, we finally did that with tobacco, through a combination of education and some reasonable forms of government regulation.

Without resorting to Prohibition or to heavy handed Taliban tactics, we the people decided we would be better off having more smoke free environments in which we all can work, eat and shop. We began investing millions in promoting the benefits of not using tobacco, and in offering help for overcoming nicotine and other addictions. And we did most of this not just for moral or religious reasons but because common sense led us to believe it was in everyone’s best interest. 

Consider the benefits of uniting our efforts--women and men, religious and non-religious, liberals, conservatives and everyone between--to actively discourage and de-popularize supporting this demeaning industry. I know some will object that we’ll never be able to define exactly what pornography is, but as someone once said, just because there is something called dusk shouldn’t keep us from being able to distinguish light from darkness.

And there is enough real darkness out there that should cause us all concern.

Raising Our GQ (Gratitude Quotient)

source

We may all wish for a higher level of intelligence, but when it comes to living a truly good life, our IQ may be less important than our GQ. 

Where might we find ourselves on a "Gratitude Quotient" scale?

If we choose to live on the gratitude-deficit side of a GQ "graph", we will likely experience some or all of the following:

Seeing ourselves as victims with an unfair share of problems.

Feeling down or depressed much of the time.

Blaming others, being critical of others, seeing them as the source of our problems.

Feeling like the world owes us.

However, if we choose to live on the gratitude-rich side of the graph, we will experience more of the following:

Seeing ourselves as privileged, with an undeserved share of blessings.

Feeling positive and hopeful most of the time.

Seeing others as fellow human beings worthy of our care and concern.

Feeling indebted to God and to God's children around the world.

There may not be much we can do to improve our IQ, but living a life of gratitude is a choice we make every day. It's not that everything we experience in life will be good, but we will celebrate the good we can find in, around and through whatever a day brings.

We can respond as author Ann Vos camp did following tragedy after tragedy in her life. In her book One Thousand Gifts: A Dare  to Live Fully Right Where You Are, she invites us to journey with her in celebrating 1000 blessings, large and small, that we can discover and celebrate in our ordinary, everyday lives.

Gratitude is indeed a choice.

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Bandaid On A Boil? Some Misgivings About Advocating For Prison Reform

freedigitalphotos.net

As many of you know, I'm passionate about improving conditions in our local jails and state prisons. Cramped quarters, poor medical treatment, inmates living in concrete buildings with oven-like summer temperatures, my list of grievances keeps growing.

Yet I'm wary of giving the impression that if all of these kinds of conditions were improved, that we would then have a humane and effective system for dealing with offenders.

The fact is that our 18th-century-based reliance on confining law breakers in steel cages is both inhumane and insane. Jails and prisons as we know them need to be eliminated and replaced--except in cases where some kind of restraint (normally temporary) is necessary to insure the safety of an offender and/or the community.

Some day our routine use of steel cages for incarcerating people will be seen with the same kind of disbelief with which we now view public floggings or other forms of torture, or putting people in stocks on the public square.

We can do better than that. In many cases, we can use some kind of restorative justice process in which offenders actually have to make restitution to their victims, including making things right with the community in which they live. In doing so, they need to continue to work to pay their fines, rectify their wrongs, support their families and rebuild their lives.

Having said all that, we must still work at improving conditions of confinement while we work at fundamentally changing a criminal justice system that is failing us all.

Meanwhile, here are some examples of needed changes at our local jail I'll continue to have concerns about:

• Having no one confined to the holding area for more than 12 hours without being provided with a blanket and mattress while waiting to be placed in a regular cell.

• Having no one confined who is awaiting trial simply because they can't afford bail.

• Not having inmates confined to segregation cells or placed on lockdown for long periods of time without opportunities for regular physical exercise and mental stimulation.

• Having non-violent offenders be able to come the visitation area without being in handcuffs and prison garb, and all inmates being able to wear ordinary civilian clothes to court appearances.

• Not having families bear the burden of paying an arbitrary $1 per day in jail “rent” ($3 for MRRJ) before their family members can purchase commissary items.

• Having commissary items and phone service provided at reasonable cost and not for profit. 

• Having quality health care provided for all inmates regardless of their ability to pay, with those on prescribed medications being able to continue them without interruption.

• No longer having suicidally depressed inmates placed in a restraint chair or the isolated padded cell due to the lack of sufficient mental health personnel.

What necessary bandaids would you add?

Billboard Aimed At Amish Claims Trump Is "Just Like YOU".

photo courtesy of Chris Landes

Just when I thought I had seen everything, I get this photo on Facebook of a billboard in Lancaster County (PA), deep in Amish country.

Needless to say, I am way beyond mystified as to how the recently formed pro-Trump "Amish PAC" can make the claim of "Just Like YOU" on its billboard. Seriously, one would have a difficult time imagining any candidate more polar opposite of the plain-living and peace-loving Amish.

This doesn't mean Donald Trump doesn't have any redeeming qualities or any viable policies. And as a follower of Jesus I am mandated to love him and respect the office he is seeking. It's just that he's a far cry from being like the modest, God-fearing people of my heritage. 

Think about it: 

one of many rooms in the Trump mansion

Trump's third family-dedicated wife

Trump's preferred mode of transportation

Trump's (and Ms. Clinton's) pro-life plan for dealing with enemies

More On The Trump AMISH PAC Ad

AMISH PAC ad in the July 13, 2016 issue of the BUDGET

The Sugarcreek (OH) Budget, a weekly paper subscribed to by Amish and conservative Mennonites all over the nation, ran its first Amish PAC in its July 13, 2016 edition.

After receiving numerous negative responses from readers, associate publisher Milo G. Miller refunded the advance payment the paper had received for ads from the group and determined the Budget would run no more of them.

According to Mennonite World Review reporter Tim Huber, the PAC's outreach director Ben King, who grew up Amish, responded with, "We're not going to let that stop us. We'll look at other ways to reach them as well. We've used small shopper papers. We'll probably start in the[Lancaster area]."

According to the MWR, the Amish PAC is working to distribute mail-in registration forms to theAmish, is adding a third billboard in the area and is planning to go door-to-door with their efforts.

Senior scholar Stephen Nolt of Elizabethtown College's Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies, a 2004 effort by Republicans in Lancaster County (PA) and Holmes County (OH), did result in an increase in Amish registered voters in Lancaster by 1,300 to 2,100 that year, but many of them didn't actually vote in November (and seven registered as Democrats).

An Unspeakable Grief

“A voice heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and refusing to be comforted, for they are no more.” 

This Biblical cry of anguish is felt by all parents, but especially by mothers who experience the premature end of a pregnancy, or who give birth to a stillborn or suffer the loss of an infant or young child.

Children are not supposed to die before their parents; it is out of sequence. We expect to help them grow and to see them successfully launched. When they die prematurely the normal life cycle is interrupted and our parental dreams come to a horrific end.

I'll never forget cries for help I've heard as a pastor and a counselor from expectant parents who reported that the heart of their baby had stopped beating, and that their much anticipated new life had been wrenched from them.

Having seen sonograms of our grandchildren, I realize more than ever how real and how incredibly precious the life of an unborn baby really is. And as with all losses, we are never fully prepared to deal with it. 

One young mother shared with me how her five-year-old, who had become super excited over the prospect of welcoming his first little sister, expressed his disbelief and dismay at her miscarriage with, “But Mommy, I’ve been practicing every day how I could help take care of the new baby!”

Among the questions he asked his mother were, “Did you eat enough? Did you breathe right, so the baby could get enough air?", all of which added to the heartbreak of his parents’ own “Whys?”“What if’s?” and “Oh No’s.”

Later the remaining members of that diminished family stood by a nearby river and read a poem written for their little girl. They then prayed a heartfelt prayer and threw rose petals on the water as they said a final goodbye.

As a pastor and family counselor I have learned to feel a deeper compassion for parents going through this kind of loss. And I am better able to identify with an anonymous mother who lost several babies and who wrote the following "Poem Without a Name," that I found on the "Missing Angels" website:  

“To those who look away when I grow teary-eyed in the baby department, look a little deeper. Surely you have some compassion in your heart. To those who change the subject when I speak my sons' names, change your way of thinking. It just might change your whole life. To those who roll their eyes and say that we barely had them at all, and how could we miss them so much, in our hearts we have seen them live a thousand times. We have seen their first steps, first days of school, their weddings, and their children. We have had them forever in our minds.”

When we bury an older adult we are left with a bittersweet collection of memories we can cherish and treasure for years to come. But when we are forced to part with a young child, we are burying all of the dreams of a life so looked forward to and never lived.

At such times of grief, our words are often far less helpful than an arm around a mourner’s shoulder, accompanied by a simple and heartfelt, “I’m so, so sorry.”

This was recently published in the free Valley Living magazine.