Timeout Inmates

I realized imprisonment was no way to reform a felon when I was seven years old. I took a punch at the babysitter's kid, and though I won the fight, the ref was crooked. She sent me to timeout.

Timeout was a chair in her dark, messy bedroom. Left alone, I found a pen and a silver birthday balloon on the floor, and expressed my anger by combining the two. Popping that silver expression of favoritism felt good. Timeout did not reform me from my violent tendencies, but only coupled them with revenge.

I'm sure many get thrown in because they don't have the right connections. Both me and the babysitter's kid punched, but only I got imprisoned because he knew the right people.

Prisons should be institutions of reform. If she would have listened to me, and given me suggestions of other ways for solving problems, timeout would have been more effective. We, the people, not the government, need to invest more of our time and means with inmates, and need to show more concern for the least of those our brethren and sisters. When we succor prisoners, we serve the Lord.

We need to improve the institutions of correction, for how we treat the lowliest among us reflects what is really in our hearts. We also need to correct the fundamental problem by teaching and living moral principles.