The Time Line

By Cameron Dunn (MaCI) (OH)
Forward by Christopher

Forward

Ohio prisoners who must gain release by parole board endure  decisions based upon biases and public opposition, rather than objectivity. Flopped again and again and again for no other reason than to satisfy public objection, one’s

rehabilitation paid lip service. When a parole board chooses this path it harms the rehabilitative mandate, for prisoners see that there’s no reward and no incentive to change. Not just those who must see a parole board but even those who don’t.

Christopher

The Time Line

By Cameron Dunn

Lines are everywhere. There are lines on this page on which I write. Some lines we pay more attention to such as the lines dividing our roadways, or our bottom line, even our waist line. Then there are some that are often overlooked such as the county lines that we mindlessly travel through on our daily commute, the veins in the leaves of a beautiful flower, or one that is very sadly disregarded.

The line between a sentence that is just and effective and a sentence that is beyond the scope of justice. And is the line a fine one? I believe it’s more broad. I’ll use my sentence for an example.

I’m serving 4 1/2 years for ‘weapons under disability’ and ‘receiving stolen property’. The reason for my crime was I was a drug addict, a junkie. I’ve done numerous incarcerations from 1 month to 1 year. Clearly, they weren’t very effective. This time has been different. I’ve had enough time to not only wash the drugs out of my system, but also grow from the stagnant state of mind I’d been stuck in. The unfortunate flip side of the coin is  the men and women who are serving decades behind bars who have also had time to grow…and grow…and grow…and get swept under the rug. There are people who need to stay in prison a while, and typically it’s the ones serving 2 years for burglary who are still doing dope in prison. The same thing that caused them to commit the crime that brought them here. Because old habits die hard. Truthfully, there isn’t much rehabilitation offered here.

But what about the ones who made a mistake? What about the one’s that have made a valiant effort to change and aren’t being given a chance? These are good people who made a mistake. Do circumstances not factor in at all? And the screening process to see if a person is ready to be released back into society is faulty. So back to that line between a just and unjust sentence. Does it take 30 or 40 years for someone to be punished enough? For any sane, right minded individual the answer is no. It doesn’t.

What if a person serves 30 years, which by the way is my whole life minus a year and that alone is almost unfathomable, but was to society’s moral standards rehabilitated after 17 years? In all reality it was probably more around the 8 or 10 year mark. But say we go with it, that’s 13 years of wasted time that they could have contributed to society.

I see so many good people who I know have been rehabilitated and who I truly believe will be productive members of society keep getting flopped at the parole board. So what is enough? Is enough a number mark or is it when someone has become a better person or learned from their mistake? Unfortunately, it’s the former.

For all the men and women who are fighting for the opportunity to live again, Peace and Love.

Cameron Dunn (MaCI) (OH)

When is punishment enough? Is it when public thirst and opposition ends? What worth is rehabilitation when a state parole board only pays lip service to one’s change?

Read the thoughts of other prisoner’s and their experience, in the book titled ”Behind The Wall: A Prisoner’s Journal, By Christopher Monihan. It contains hundreds of posts from this blog by myself and prisoners across the country. Every story represents a life behind these razor wire fences. Search Amazon by title and author’s name.

THANK YOU so much for following, please share the posts you read here with others. –Christopher–