Franklin Johonoson is my baby brother. There are 3 children in our nuclear family with 2 hard working parents who tried their best to raise us to be good people and functional parts of society. We were educated in the school district of Lancaster, and overall we had a pretty good childhood. Frankie was always making poor decisions when he was a child, never thought about consequences from his actions and he continued until he reached his early teens and became involved with the law. He rejected any help from our family and faced his life and dilemmas as he saw fit. We always were there for him but he was on his own and constantly in and out of prison for multiple crimes. Each time he would be released, he repeated the same behaviors and within a short time was re- incarcerated. It was when I became Lancaster County Prison nurse and furthered training at Camp Hill Prison that I found out the problem that Frankie and many other inmates appear to have. Institutionalization. They work jobs in prison with a small salary, get 3 hots and a cot, have allotted times for television and movie watching, get exercise and gym time, learn a trade if they qualify and if it is available, get dental and health care, have access to showers daily as well as clean clothing and shoes. When the prison staff met me, there was an ongoing theme that Frankie was a good guy and model prisoner. He worked to help other inmates use the law library for their defense, and did not give the staff any problems. As soon as Frankie was released he returned within months and regained his way of life. I wonder what would have happened when Frankie started his life of crime in 1977 and when he was released, had mandated conditions to attend sessions for emotional and psychological therapy, assisted to obtain employment, and had to have a shelter or home to live in. He was released so many times and often reported he had shelter but did not, he tried to get meaningful jobs and faced rejections because of his criminal background or noncompliance to go to work, and after he was in the streets and got tired of being out there, he did a crime in order to return to the sanctuary of the prison where he had companionship from the staff and inmates, his 3 hots and cot, his job, and other necessities of life again given to him. Our system has a lot of structured plans and reports of programs for inmates returning back into society but if they were effective I believe we would have less people in prison and the recidivism rate would be lower. Frankie is possibly facing the longest term in prison that he ever served as the newspaper article documented. I believe if he received needed help to go back into society when his criminal troubles began, he probably would not be where he is now. My question is would it have not been less cost to help a criminal especially a young criminal learn how to return and function in society rather than paying to house and care for them for most of their life? This question also goes for older criminals especially juvenile lifers without parole. If we continue this penal system, we are already running out of prison space and taxes keep rising and we will need more and more prison staff to maintain inmate control. Why not try to re-enter some of these people into society with mandated rules and follow ups. We all make mistakes big and small but we all don’t get caught. I know I probably irritated some people. Why don’t we start a website for further dialogue and maybe we can come up with some ideas and solutions and present them to our congressmen. We don’t have to agree on everything but we all must agree there is a growing chronic serious problem with our penal system that needs to be resolved.
Posted on: Fri, 23 Aug 2013 10:50:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015