On one of my e-groups, a friend sent in a quote from someone who lived in Jersey and that got me to thinking about Naomi S.
In high school it was either drugs or Jesus but never both and never neither. I went to a little aggie church [Assemblies of God] during one of my Jesus phases and one night we were treated to a really cool speaker. Her name was Naomi and she was there to tell her story, to witness. She had come out of slums and drug addiction a murderer and gone to prison for it. They transported her around to talk to different groups I guess cuz there she was one night talking to us.
What happened is that she had killed her boyfriend and then after her conviction for that, she somehow managed to kill the judge. I wrote to her for awhile and she wrote back to me. I think she was a lifer or something but my dad didn't care much for the idea. "What is this 'Drawer E?'" he asked one morning and when I told him, he pitched a fit. That was the end of me writing to Naomi.
Later on in my recovery I was writing to prisoners in various states and to one fellow in recovery that was in prison for something he did when he wasn't. All the prisoners I wrote to at that time said, "I didn't do it." The dude in recovery, he had a variation on it. He said, "I did it but I don't 'member it. I was in a black-out." To his credit, he didn't begrudge his time as so many others woulda or did. He figured that he was responsible for what he done and he paid his price to society and then he got out and stayed in recovery too.
Sometime after that, an acquaintance went to prison and she did time in shock camp. It done her good I guess but I haven't seen her for quite awhile so I don't know what happened to her. A good friend and neighbor went to a fed pen for a couple years for something he done. He got out on parole. He's been done with parole now for a long time and he is doing good. So some people do learn they "shouldn't do that again."
Another guy I used to know who was from the neighborhood come to my house one night to talk. Later on he raped an old lady and went to prison. He wrote me a letter and said, "Oh if only I coulda told you that night I was in trouble." I didn't write back to him cuz I couldn't deal with him raping an old lady. She wound up in the nursing home that I worked at and she had lost her mind and she was a complete nervous wreck.
Now we got drug court and everyone got chances and if they screw up, jail and prison are in their consequences. We got halfway houses too and some of the folks in them got legal hanging over their heads as well. Unfortunately, in a small town everyone talks. Being in a halfway house or in drug court is like living in a fishbowl. The alternative is worser. Though sometimes I think people have gotten a bit spoilt round the edges.
I have some hostility when I hear about things like someone with a gazillion dwis is given back a driver's license and stuff like that. Cuz now supposedly dwis cannot be plea bargained anymore yet it seems like to break the law and not get any time away from society is pretty messed up.
sapphoq on life
2 comments:
Drunk driving is the same as pointing a rifle into a crowd and firing it repeatedly ... If nobody dies from it are you innocent? Fuck NO, you were doing something that usually kills someone and somehow didn't. During my time as a prison minister I was blessed with being one of the few people in the prison system that got honesty. A lot of the people I met with actually did it, and a lot of them showed honest emotions, but when the door went click {meaning that the "screw" was coming in to get them} they all hardened instantly, became innocent, and emotions were illegal again ;-) JC
Yep, I do reserve a special contempt for drunk and drugged up drivers. And for the laws in New York State which make driving while intoxicated-drugs difficult to prove. spike q.
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