Lock Up

I have been watching this series lately mostly out of boredom. The more I watch it the more it scares me. Not in the literal sense, more on a philosophical level. There is a whole segment of the population who has this messed up way of seeing things therefore they are in prison. Now, some of those people get parole and get to come out and live amongst us, with their fucked up reasoning.

Case in point Johnny. He is a 46 year old latin man who has been in and out of jail since the 80's. He went to jail the first time when he was 17. This last stint was 20 years. He was waiting to be paroled. He thought he would be out for Cinco de Mayo so he was excited. But there were charges pending so they had to tell him he wasnt getting out the 5th of May. He walks in and knows immediately he isn't getting out. So he proceedes to throw a fit and start whining and complaining. He's walking back out of the room and doesn't want to talk to the warden. Im thinking that attitude isn't going to get much on the outside. If you tell me Im not getting out, then the next thing I need to know is when and how. Im not going to start throwing fits, I want answers. The warden tells him he's getting out July 1. He sighs and grumbles and goes back to his cell.

Later another charge comes up, he tells the secretary that those charges were dropped. The charges of course threaten his release date. She gets on the phone to find out what gives. She finds out that in fact the charges had been dropped. Good. Next thing is that he doesn't have any place to go to when he gets out, so he needs to fill out an application for a halfway house. The secretary helps him do all that and he gets accepted. Before he goes to the halfway house he has to have a phyche evaluation. He finds out the doctor can't see him for two weeks, which will push his release back. He loses it. He's in his cell cursing talking about beating the doctor up and slapping him. He goes on and on like this. There is no doubt if he wasn't locked in a cell he would have beaten someone up in that moment. I'm thinking, this dude aint gonna make it on the outside. He's talking to the camera crew and interviewer and says 'this is all he's ever known' meaning being locked up. Yeah, he's definately not going to make it. He gets the evalutation and how he passes I have no idea. But he gets out on time. He goes to the half way house. Next thing we know he walks away from the half way house, and is caught at a gas station a couple of miles away. In less than 24 hours he's back on parole violation. I don't get it, you wanted to be out so bad, raising all this hell; but then you come right back?

This mentality exists in our society. There's nothing you can do about it.