Our Sponsors are an important foundation of our online community. Please visit their websites.
Our Associate Sponsors provide valuable support to our community and help build 'The Wall'.
Our partners help move the Wired In agenda forward.
Join our community, create your own profile page, and communicate about what matters to you.
I just got the news from our mutual friend about my boy in jail. He’s taken a plea deal of 15 years. If he hadn’t the judge was threatening him with 60. I think the punishment is completely out of proportion to the crime, but unfortunately I have no say in it. I’d thought maybe 5-6 years. But 15?
He’s going to get out when he’s 47. I’ll be 55. He’ll have spent his entire adult life behind bars – the first time he went in was age 19 and this last time was the longest he’d gone free since then – a year and a half.
It’s SO sad because this man is such a product of his environment – an extremely abusive childhood, addiction to alcohol and drugs, and long stints in prisons where he’s had to literally fight for his life on many occasions. He told me in his last letter to me that my letters were the only thing keeping him from going insane and becoming a complete animal.
But I’ve seen the other side of him, the tender, sweet, thoughtful, intelligent, artistic side. And it makes me so sad that side of him has to be squashed yet again. Yes, I know he made his own decisions to become what he has – I’m not blind to his faults. But it’s just so tragic.
And yes, because I do have feelings for him, my heart is also a little squashed. Because I cannot wait 15 years for this man. I will keep writing to him and be his friend in any way I can but I’m going to have to rein in the emotions.
Super Bummed.
T- over and out
Now that is a pretty raw deal – and pretty indicative of what seems to happen to those who are bashed about in early life.
But I also have to say that, him aside, you are still on your own journey. And whether or not it was 5, 10 or 15 – one certainty is that you will change.
what was he charged with ? if you dont mind me asking
Michaela, thanks for the supportive words, hon
JJ- three things. 1, theft of lotto tickets. That I’m told is what caused the severity of his sentence as it’s a federal crime in the US. 2, he ripped a cash register right off the counter and was running down the street with it when he was arrested. He’s a rather imposing figure- 6’2” and about as muscle bound as they come. and 3, this is his third time in. I believe the just was trying to make an example of him.
