nixtress's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wouldn'tcha like to be a penpal too?

Susan Smith (no comment) and her personal ad asking for penpals...what an interesting concept. I'm sure she's lonely and I'm sure that she's full of regret NOW for the things she did to put herself in prison. So, being the curious gal I am, I went to that website to see what kind of space she'd found to look for a new "friend".

It's a site, www.writeaprisoner.com, based out of Florida, that provides an outlet for criminals to try to receive correspondance from the outside world.

In reading over some of these ads, I'm amazed at the amount of people who claim to be falsely accused and convicted. I'm also amazed by the complete ..weirdness of some of them. And I wonder, the people who choose to form "relationships" with these seekers, are they the world's most compassionate people or the world's most foolish?

Hmm..

Does being in a bad situation, making bad choices, and living an overall bad existence make a person ..bad? My stepfather, the one who died, was in and out of prison for as long as he was alive. He made horrible choices and did some fairly horrible things (of the non-murderous/rape/anything involving children variety) but in my head I can't classify him as one of the worst people I've known. He had redeeming qualities.

I war with myself over this topic quite a bit. There's a portion of me that feels quite strongly a person should pay for their crimes, whatever they are. I feel that, in the most basic of ways. Prison is not fun and shouldn't be enjoyable---to be there, you've had to have committed some act to PUT you there. Generally, that involves bad decisions and sometimes not a lick of conscience. However, knowing my stepdad as I did, I know that not everyone who's in prison is 100% evil. Some of them are just..really lost.

All in all, it's been a funny wandering. I'm glad I'm not in the market for penal penpals.

***

I've wandered into several new diaries and am enjoying reading the archives. Such interesting and diverse people populate Dland.

Off to bother some people I know,

N.

11:31 a.m. - 2003-07-15

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next

latest entry

about me

archives

notes

DiaryLand

contact

random entry

other diaries:

boxx9000
sixweasels
la-the-sage
singledadguy
nmnohr
Batten
myownjourney
nicim
swimmmer72
stwig
thunderstorm
lerin
theflyingrat
ochweidnit
selaith
rugged