Replies

1. 
   Jammersix | Jan 17, 2010 06:35am | #1

   I appreciate the warning.

   There is no chance that I'll support a company that supports woodworking in correctional institutions.

   I'm glad you pointed the matter out.

1. 
   RalphBarker | Jan 17, 2010 10:47am | #2

   I understand that Bernie Madoff has enrolled in a woodworking program. Apparently, the chisel had a special appeal to him. ;-)

1. 
   oldusty | Jan 17, 2010 10:54am | #3

   Ralph , Ralph , Ralph

1. 
   RalphBarker | Jan 17, 2010 11:27am | #4

   I know, I'm terrible, aren't
   I know, I'm terrible, aren't I? ;-)

2. 
   WillGeorge | Jan 17, 2010 08:19pm | #5

   Some but not many try to reform.. I as a young child was in

   in a reform school, twice... I was bad child.. But I just did stupid things. I never tried to hurt any person by phisical harm. Just something other that got folks upset by what I did., I do not remember what got me in real trouble...

   My house parents in the reform school, St. Charles Illinois

   were black house parents and they were.. Very strict.. But very loving to ALL of us IF we followed the rules. And even if we did not, we were always treated WITHOUT a beating on our bones. Thinking back, they only asked that we should all be nice to each other. As in nothing more than common rules that all folks must follow.

   I sure wish I could remember their names. I think it does not matter to them.. I turned out, at least, a reasonable person without hate for anybody...

   Some folks will never get better! I did?

   I have no shame to express my thoughts, many other people have pointed me to a path to someplace wihout a path back somewhere. My St. Charles, reform school Parents, pointed me to the Yellow Brick Road.

   And then I came back in one year (more trouble I got into) and I was greeted with a BIG hug and sent to another place by the Missippi river for another year or two.. After I got out I went to the USA Army. The Marines did not offer to have me? I tried very hard! And think I did my best in the USA Army Artillary as a mechanic. I was taken as I WAS. I followed orders.. Mostly..

   Not all of us that spent a few years in prison are really bad folks! I became a common human when sent to a so called boys farm? Some place near the Mississippi Palisades State Park near/in Savanna, Illinois.

   http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&safe=off&rls=com.microsoft:en-us&rlz=1I7ADRA_en&resnum=0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=illinois+mississippi+palisades+state+park&fb=1&gl=us&hq=illinois+mississippi+palisades+state+park&hnear=illinois+mississippi+palisades+state+park&cid=9235813595044860018

   I never worked so hard in my life but everybody was kind to me but I had to follow every order given. If I did not follow the order I was at least asked why I did not do it.

   After the talk with the staff I still had to do it! But at least I had a voice to express my frustrations?

   Thinking back,. those were very good years in my life!

1. 
   SteveSchoene | Jan 17, 2010 08:37pm | #6

   Important Testimony--thank you. America incarcerates a larger proportion of our population than any other nation, we can't afford to throw them away. I'd certainly rather inmates became woodworkers than recidivists.

1. 
   Jammersix | Jan 19, 2010 07:47pm | #7

   He would have come around and become a rational human being with or without a woodworking program.

   Convicts should not be offered opportunities, like training, that are out of reach or unavailable at the same cost to our poorest, HONEST folk. When the last child on the Pine Ridge res, (the poorest county in the U.S.) has the same free access to such programs, I'll think about it. But not until then.

   And even if we get there, (and we never will) there are millions of veterans leaving the service who deserve such programs far more than those who can't be bothered to obey the law.

   If we're going to spend finite resources, I'm against spending them on opportunities for convicts, and consider any business that does so as fools.

   And fools are to be avoided.