Joey Day : First Edition: Email in Prison

July 11, 2003

Email in Prison

I would really like to know why some prisoners get better benefits than those on the outside. Why are some prisoners allowed to get GED's or watch television for endless hours? Why are some of them treated better than people that are homeless???

Please tell me why this women is allowed to receive email?!?! I remember when she killed her kids. People like her should be thrown into a dark, dank cell and left to rot.

Sorry... I'll come down off my soapbox now.

Posted by Kristen at July 11, 2003 08:52 AM

Comments

I have to agree with you on this one completely. I think the movie Minority Report had the right idea on what prison should be. Lock them up and give them just enough that they stay alive.

All this crap about human rights violations kinda upsets me. Now don't get me wrong, they are still people and deserve to be treated with some amount (however small) of respect. But they are in prison because they decided to do something that infringed on someone else's human rights.

Posted by: Stu at July 11, 2003 08:34 AM

I'm not sure if I agree with you two on this one...

I am upset, appalled, and disgusted at the crimes people like Susan Smith commit. I feel the law is right and just in keeping them off the streets, away from a society they could harm.

I wonder what could have been going through her head when she did what she did? Surely she didn't have a complete hatred for her own children. She just did something incredibly stupid and incredibly wrong.

The Savior has some pretty harsh words for those who mistreat little children: "It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea...." (Luke 17:2 NASB.) Ouch!

Yet, who are we to judge? We have our problems. Judgment is God's.

True, a judge of the law must judge. That is why I feel people like Susan Smith must go to prison.

But maybe we should be more worried about our own judgement. One description of our judgement says the following:

"...when the Son of Man comes in His glory...He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then, the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For...I was in prison, and you came to me. ...To the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

"Then He will also say to those on His left, `Depart from Me, accursed ones,...for I was...in prison, and you did not visit Me....To the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' (Matthew 25:31-45 NASB.)

Perhaps Susan Smith is "one of the least of these." How many of us have been to visit prisoners lately? I'm nearly convinced I should e-mail Ms. Smith. She's probably incredibly lonely, despite her access to e-mail...

Joey, thanks for this forum. I'm glad we can discuss things like this. Kristen, thanks for the entry. It was good food for thought.

Posted by: steve at July 15, 2003 09:24 AM

PS By e-mailing Ms. Smith, I mean to comfort her with a simple hello, not become her soulmate ;). I have one of those, thank you very much!

Posted by: steve at July 15, 2003 09:27 AM

PPS Whoa! Joey, that's pretty cool that any scripture automatically becomes a link. B) How did you do that? Is that a moveable type option?

Posted by: steve at July 15, 2003 09:34 AM

It's actually a plugin for the Movable Type system called "Scripturizer". You can find more information about it here. It's a little bit buggy sometimes though. For instance, on the link to the book of Luke above, it seems to have included the space after the number 2 as part of the link. Weird.

Posted by: Joey at July 15, 2003 10:08 AM

But your both missing the point. She killed her own children. Killed them! I'm sure you wouldn't feel this same way if she had killed your own kids. :duh

Posted by: Kristen at July 16, 2003 02:50 AM

I wouldn't exactly call it "judgement". She did something incredibly horrible... and should be punished for it. It has nothing to do with judging someone. That's not judgment... that's getting what she deserves. What about men that rape women? Or others who kill innocent people? If they do these things... should they be allowed to just walk around willy nilly and not be punished for it? For something as horrible as what Susan Smith did... should she be allowed contact with the outside world?? No, she shouldn't. She killed TWO people, her own children.

If anything, the services that prisoners get today should be applied to those suffering on the outside. People in prison are there for a reason and should get what they have coming to them.

Posted by: Kristen at July 16, 2003 09:27 AM

14 "For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 "But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions."
— Matthew 6:14-15

I agree that people should be punished for breaking the law (especially such things as Susan Smith did), but I also believe that we should forgive them if they show sincere repentance. Susan Smith claims that she has repented, but we really have no way of knowing whether or not that's true. I would rather leave that judgement up to One who judges rightly.

I don't think there are any sins that cannot be forgiven. I have sinned enough that I would be extremely worried about my own salvation unless I had not trusted Christ to forgive me.

That said, I do agree that a lot of money that is spent to keep prisoners fat and happy could be better used elsewhere. Part of the repentance process should be to make restitution for the sin you've committed, and perhaps being denied simple freedoms such as email should be part of that restitution. She denied her children certain "inalienable rights", and so for a time she should also be denied them.

However, I agree with Steve in that we should not condemn her, but instead reach out to her. How is she ever going to know the love of God unless someone shows it to her? How is she ever going to change her life unless someone sets an example for her? :?

Steve said: "She's probably incredibly lonely, despite her access to e-mail..."

I wonder how many people have already emailed her to tell her what a rotten person she is. Does anybody really think that she's going to find her soulmate?

Having access to email has probably not enhanced the quality of her life at all. The media coverage has probably been humiliating and the number of people emailing her daily with hateful messages is probably not making her feel any better.

I wonder if she needs a copy of EmailProtect...

Posted by: Joey at July 16, 2003 12:29 PM

Joey Keep up the good work I have to agree with you 100%
God bless you all.

Posted by: roxanna at April 22, 2004 09:28 AM

You have the right to your opinion so I'm not going to argue with you, but I am going to have to disagree with you.
I think it is better for prisoners to have the opportunity to better themselves. Why would you want to be paying taxes just to let someone sit in a box with absolutely nothing? No matter what they're doing while they're in prison we will still be paying for it and I would rather spend my money to give some one a chance at making themselves better or at least keep themselves busy. I'm not saying that these people should not be punished for what they have done, but I do not think we should treat them like animals. I will agree with you that enough is not being done to help the homeless or others that are struggling that have done nothing wrong, but if you were so worried about them why are you on here complaining about it instead of doing something to help.

Posted by: somebody at May 9, 2004 06:27 AM