20 FEB Update - Thinking about prison things

Trying something new...


Faith and Prayer
20 FEB 2020
apx 8 pm my time
Thursday Update
#My2020PatreonChallenge

I guess this has been a strange week...  I haven't felt well, slept a lot, and then got sidetracked by a search on Bernie Madoff.  I discovered they have all kinds of videos and movies about him, documentaries, and news shows.  There was an "anniversary" themed program I watched... ten years later.  I kept seeing different details about the same events. I discovered family members I didn't know about, and wondered how much was true and how much was Hollywood "drama."
I haven't really paid much attention to all that over the years.  I decided to write to Mr. Madoff after his son was found dead, with their young son in the apartment with him.  I'm not sure I believe he hanged himself.  In watching the videos, I still wonder.  His wife said his first text was HELP, then later there was a text about having someone come get their son.  I don't know about autopsies, how they can determine someone had done this to him/herself.  I figured the loss of money had something to do with it. Vengeance is a terrible motivation.

Money is the god in some lives.  It makes people do very terrible things.

The Bible tells us to want as much as we need, not too little and not too much.  Poverty isn't good, neither is extreme wealth when you don't have a purpose for it or your life.  I have only know the poverty side, but I have expected GOD to provide wealth for Working Together and building the future for His people.  (work2gather.us)  It hasn't happened so far, but I also have felt the battles at spiritual levels.

I have never received a reply from Mr. Madoff.  I write to him because what I did see in the news made me pray for him.  Later on, I also felt that he might be able to change the prison system on punishment for crimes of theft.  I have come to believe it would be better to focus on making financial restitution than building more prisons.

My perspective on this change comes from my experience with my sons in the system, and seeing that a lot of theft is drug-related, poverty-related, and survival related.  I discovered prison doesn't seem to change the future.

As our moral characters decline with the rejection of anything godly, more crimes will happen.  We can't just build more prisons.  In time, there will need to be "prisons" to keep good people safe.

We need to find a better way.  Theft seemed like the easiest place to start.  Legal consequences could become related to work, education, mentoring, and other programs that provide the foundation of change in the lives of criminals... especially those who will be released one day.

I guess you could say my INMATE NEWS project was my hope for this big need.  I created a special project tier for it iat my PATREON page to see if I could raise the necessary start-up finding for it.
Money, again.  It is what we need to achieve good, and what seems to be a way of valuing our worth.

I guess I failed that test.

In my mixed efforts to reach out to inmates and to find a way to reform the prison system, I have suggested they need to write a book about their side of their story.  It would help them and help us.  They can take a hard look at their lives, we can begin to understand why we are here and they are there.

The only version most of us have of an inmates life and crime is the media version.  We don't go to courtrooms, know these people individually, understand their situations, the why's of their crimes...and efforts they have made to change.  It would allow them to speak, and be something other than the media record when they try to be released.

I also advocate for the government to create an "eBay for inmates" so everyone can benefit on the way to their future.  Books are just one thing inmates could make to sell and earn money for themselves and their other financial responsibilities, including restitution.  The prison system could generate non-tax income for their own needs.

There is a lot that could be done, but it seems to be a hopeless cause.

The request by Mr. Madoff for compassionate release is why I revisited his past through an online search.  I don't believe he will (or should) get a release, but I do think we all would benefit if he was released through a restitution program.  His consequences have already been huge, and they will never go away.  How much is enough?

The Bible teaches about making restitution for doing wrong in things that restitution can resolve... like theft, like destroying property that belongs to another, and whatever else it cites.  What I remember right now is that it says restitution is to be made if it takes everything you own.  That is the consequence... paying for your crime... replacing what you have taken or destroyed.

In my own thoughts, I have considered that the restitution amount would grow with any subsequent thefts.  This is from thinking that the amounts would be small, and the inmate would be younger.  Over the course of time, and repeating programs, work, mentoring, education, the criminal would become a different person.  Court costs could be included if there is a repeating event.  I just think the current idea to stick everyone behind bars is not working.  We have to find a better way to the future.

We all face the consequences of our choices... they are part of the crime package.  What are the right consequences is my focus.  Housing people in prison can make them worse.  If someone is going to be released, they need to be ready to survive, or helped until they are ready, at release.


I decided today to make writing the book about Working Together and my vision for it the second project tier for WT ($10).  I spent so many years developing its framework, and trying to find funding, now it seems the best I can do is to write out everything I can and share it with the Christian Community.  Hopefully, it will make them think about what is heading our way... and how to protect their loved ones from as much as possible before the Antichrist rises to kill us.

I guess I need to decide how much I need to be able to get that done.

In Christ,
Deborah Martin
work2gather.us