This was an odd one at first glance but when I read it again I said to myself this letter turned out to be pretty sad as soon as the writer began talking about love. After reading a decent amount of the letters from lifers, I began seeing a trend in a prisoner’s passion for all types of love. Normally, these letters bring a message of hope and change. These lifers had found their own freedom and live life within the prisons walls. They seemed to have accepted the fact that they are in for an entire life, they might as well make the best of it. In this letter, however, the person writing it does not seem to be living life. He seems to be very hurt by the fact that he is alone. It makes me wonder how long he has been in jail for, is it just the initial shock or is he a “seasoned” vet of the judicial system. It could be either or because I remember Sam and/or his wife saying that most of the lifers do not get used to the idea that they are in jail until they have been in for a long time. He also seems perturbed by the fact that he is alone without the company of a woman to hug, love, confide, and have as a friend. He does not seem to think of being in jail as something that has taken his freedom, he seems more worried about the fact that he has lost the ability to love and be loved. I could never imagine on ever having to come to terms with such a thing, nor would I ever want to. He kind of opens my eyes to how important my relationships are, with family, friends, significant others, and anyone I encounter because things might be great one day than turn in the blink of an eye towards the worse. I feel so lucky to have people I care about and to have people care about me, and I embrace these relationships. Happiness should be found in who and what you are surrounded by, not what you have. To me, happiness is one of the big things that takes time to adapt to when it is all taken away.

This article is an interesting one but it made me ponder the thought about society and the way we “label”. In this day and age once you are given a label it is hard to break out of it especially if you’re famous and always have the media attention. I think because of that most people conform to the labels they’re given instead of trying to fight against it over time. In this case I can see why the Temple students were naturally defensive in the beginning because when you hear that you are going to be in the same room with convicts convicted if heinous crimes (especially Graterford, I mean it houses one of the states two male death rows) you form your opinion about them to conform to that label. A label of being a convict goes with the assumption that the person must have done something bad enough to get them a spot in prison. The mind wanders to all of the possibilities of the crimes these criminals may have committed and you can’t help but categorize them as something criminal. In the case of the prisoner, this is the worst label that anyone could have. The label he has is the label that makes everyone he is around uncomfortable. When he walks into the room with the Temple students, his prisoner label scares them more than likely, because they know he is a criminal and is a possible threat to their safety. However, he does not believe he is. He believes that he is a normal human being, and wants to escape this label, but like I said earlier over time he will get used to it due to my opinion of the only thing that one can do is to recognize the fact that society operates on labels and you either are getting a good one or a bad one. I think if everyone has the knowledge of this, we can see other people in their label frame and in a normal human being frame, and go from there in terms of choosing where they belong. That way more people will be accepting of others because it’s a dog eat dog world out there for no reason.

The letter by this inmate was a deep one and I think that is great that he has shared his story with us. However, this letter really hit home for me and I dont give two rats asses how he feels now considering the hurt he has apparently caused women with his undisclosed crime. I say that because over the past six years I was on Active Duty I was able to have had the opportunity to become close friends with both males and females that have been involved in an emotionally abusive relationship with someone that they thought they truly loved and vice versa. I think the biggest aggravating factor to this type of behavior is the way the rest of society and older generations think what true love should be as opposed to the way that the media describes other outlooks on relationships in todays society, for example when we were talking about how society is driven by the male pornographic view by saying sex sells and that any ordinary Joe Schmo off the street thinks they can do whatever they want because they see it on things like TV, in music videos, and in movies at least one to three times every day. I think it is important for our generation to break through the stereotypes and reaffirm what a healthy and admirable relationship is. I think this type of stereotype will be a much bigger task of ours when we begin to have children due in fact that the media is only going to get bigger and bigger over time. I think the one main question I would have to ask myself and that is, How am i going to teach my son that a woman deserves to be treated with the upmost respect? I think it may have taken this man the amount of time it did to realize this, especially with all of those hours sitting in his jail cell thinking about this topic, because he needed something to make him look at his life from a different perspective. Instead of living a happy prosperous like he should be, he made one big slip up and is paying for the rest of his life.

This was an interesting letter and I applaud the man for sharing this this heartfelt story. It was pretty interesting how this letter explained the negatives of prison but also talked about some of the positives that the people on the outside might not see due to stereotypical ways some Americans have towards criminals. It explains the negatives of prison being the removal of a person from society and how that breaks someone down emotionally. I thought it was interesting how the inmate said he had received five to eight letters a day when he was first sentenced, then it started to become five to eight letters every couple of months. To me this really shows someone the effects prison has on someones family and friend status. That brings a question into my mind that lawmakers should think a little harder about and that is whether or not people deserve to spend life in prison, which is an idea I have wrestled with for a long time due to my views on capital punishment. Honestly, to this day, I still dont have a definite opinion on what mandates a life term in PA although I would lean in either direction depending on the situation that the hand has been dealt. However, after reading this letter written by this inmate does kind of help me lean in the direction of giving people second chances. This letter has proved to me that sometimes people just make bad decisions or end up in bad situations, but that does not make them bad people. Obviously this guy must have done something to land him a life sentence in jail, but he has a good heart and does not seem like someone who deserves a life that consists of living in an 8x10 room for 23 hours a day 7 days a week for the rest of his life. Now, I am not saying everyone who is in jail, especially the ones who have life sentences or higher are good people but Im pretty sure there are way more inmates that realize what they have done was wrong than ones who dont and the ones who show the most understanding and compassion for what they have done to land themselves in jail should be awarded a second chance to me.

This was an interesting article because of the route they take when it comes to the thinking process of how major cities have evacuation orders for multiple natural or manmade disasters for thousands of people. I think the actions of most individuals are based on self-willed incentives. To me the question that most answer is, “How will this benefit me in the future or even now?” in part because most have ten or twenty plus years of memories and now are threatened to evacuate and have nothing to come back to and the other thing that comes into mind is controlling crowds is a very gray area. It is almost common knowledge that in a state of emergency, people panic and cause way more chaos than they already have. One recent one that has happened and i was unfortunate enough to live through when i was on active duty was hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. The leadership of New Orleans did not assess the risks of this hurricane well enough and did not warn people soon enough for them to get themselves evacuated. However when it got closer to the time when the hurricane was going to hit, people started to panic creating one of the biggest sh** storms in american history. The article that was just read explains how we should learn from this mistake. Instead of trying to evacuate everyone at once, we should work on evacuating the areas most susceptible to the dangers of the hurricane, and once they are evacuated then they should work on evacuating the rest of the population. I think that this is definitely the best way to go about this. In order to keep people calm, they must know that if they are in the most danger, that the people in charge have all of their attention and help directed towards there safety and well being. With that being said, all society leaders whether it be the county commissioners or concerned citizens need to find a way to encourage people to participate in the planning and execution instead of only benefiting from the results to reduce the injuries and casualties of such situations.

After reading this letter I’m kind of impressed with what he had to say especially the way he started off by saying “I once was a boy now I am an inmate who lives with murderers, rapists and thieves”, at first I thought he was going to try and play it off like he was a victim of a corrupt system but he didn’t and to me was pretty commendable. He never denied what he did and knew it was wrong and don’t mind me saying he was basically a 14 year old runaway who obviously comes from a shaky background and at the time of this heinous act he wasn’t listening to his instinct instead he was listening to his homies and the one adult who I consider the ring leader of this because out of all of them he should’ve known the most this was a bad idea. It also has me interested when he mentions on the purpose of why he writes. He wants to give a glimpse to the people outside and make them see the other side of being in prison as people doesn’t expect it exists. I like how he says that when he writes it is the fact that he doesn’t like to talk much about his crimes as he says he doesn’t want to relive the night out of respect for the living victims of his crime it really sounds to me that this guy has come a long way from that one evening as a 14 year old boy to what he is now. I understand him that he doesn’t want pity or consideration because of the act he did to be in prison. He thinks that by reading his story maybe would inspire people and make them work with kids so they don’t go the same way he chose for his life. He wants his words, his story to cause change for the better of other people. I’m not one much for forgiving people who commit acts of crime like this but I do say this man deserves another shot at life because he basically was a child who was an accomplice not the actual murderer (unless of course he let something out of his little speech).

After reading this article I applaud this man’s efforts even though I am all about you doing the crime you are doing the time. However, at least in the state of PA really the only things that can get you life is murder in the first or second degree (and I don’t agree with no possibility of parole for this degree) and/or kidnapping which means you either took someone’s life or attempted to terrorize the hell out of someone else’s, so to me u don’t really deserve to breath any oxygen and you should rot in jail and one would hope you live 50 plus years behind bars and have flashbacks to the specific event that got you there in the first place. With that said not everyone serving life sentences are heinous criminals and to me, what you do in jail is a whole different story and I applaud this man for everything he has done. Tyrone perused his dreams he did it by being a part of the Board of Directors of Reconstruction, Inc., The Victim Offender Reconciliation Program, the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, the End Violence Project, workshops focusing on leadership and civic pride and responsibility, the Prison Literacy Project, the National Thresholds Program, and the Temple University Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program Think Tank, he show us that dreams can come true no matter what your circumstances are. He also accomplished in getting two college degrees and becoming a licensed dental technician. To me he is a prime example on how some inmates know how to spend tax payers money wisely and actually putting it to good use without wasting it away like 60% of the prison population does most of the time anyway. The other big thing I commend Mr. Wertz on is he does acknowledge his mistakes and wants to give guidance to others so they won't make the same mistakes. People can't make the right decisions sometimes if they have not been told about the right way to live. All in all I think more state prisons nationwide will eventually catch on to this man’s efforts and will realize it might not be the worst idea to give this a shot.

After reading/listening to this piece it just goes to show some people are complete morons in today’s society. Why people would try to do this to young kids is beyond me, but, why would you do it in a big city to begin with knowing that thousands of eyes are watching you and in this case the damn camera staring right at you? However, I’m going to have to side with what Sam had said a couple of classes ago and isolate this into a smaller category. It is apparent (to the naked eye) that the suspect more than likely had no idea who this kid was and judging by that stupid smirk he was doing it for his own enjoyment, pass or fail. However, that is not the case in most child abductions or attempts. I would be willing to bet at least 85% of cases are done by a family member or someone else that the child trusts very well. With that said I also want to agree on another point that was made in the same class, and that is even though the decades have passed this kind of stuff has been going on for years. I just think that the media is able to blow stuff up (and normally out of proportion) a lot quicker now as opposed to when our parents grew up. Now I guess the next age old question parents are probably asking themselves is “how do we avoid it happening to us?” We all are taught from a young age never talk to strangers or hold hands with them because parents have this fear that there is a strong believe that a stranger is a bad person. This leads into yet another point that was made in this same class, when a child does become lost, he or she will most likely have a much harder time being found/ getting help because the child(ren) have learned that all strangers are bad and scary. These rules that parents lay out for their children can potentially endanger them more than they already are. I think in due time that kids of all ages will have a cell phone of some sort on their body and know how to call 911 in the event that something like this happens again. Let’s face it, we live in a world filled with morons and stuff of this nature happens all the time.

This is one of the more interesting posts I have read. I say this because all of the other ones I have read have only talked about what is going on in their cell and how much time they have. One thing I am confused on is what he even did to be sentenced to life because most of the other inmates I read about say it within the first three sentences. What I thought was cool was he actually stepped back in time and told it like a story only emphasizing sex. He claims to have come from a loving family from North Philly whose father was drafted into Vietnam during the gang-war days and that is where it all went wrong for him than he shifts the focus from family to the neighborhood he grew up in. The big thing I noticed is even though all of his friends who lived in the same atmosphere did their thing and succeeded in life he got stuck in a rut. So I really think there is more to this story. Perhaps those invisible strings had a hold of him and his actions more than what he thought they did. I mean if you get hooked on certain drugs you can certainly be inviting prostitution into your life and not to mention he was a teenage boy at the same time. Dare I say that those same strings coerced him to do the unthinkable? The only one that could answer that is him. With that said I also grew up myself in NW Philly to a loving family as well and it was starting to turn into the ghetto’s we have today before I moved out when I was 16, it was hard to do the right thing with all the pressures of everyday life growing up as an American teenager. However, I didn’t end up on the path this inmate did and end up in jail, I instead went on to graduate high school, serve in the military, and it all correlated with me getting accepted to college and I would almost guarantee that the city of Philadelphia (all sections) is at least 1000 times worse now with sex, drugs, and alcohol than when this inmate lived there.

This article was interesting, but I have flown a lot and visited a lot of different countries when I was on Active Duty and kind of think that American pride, in a way, makes most of its citizens ignorant to any other culture. However, the one thing I found odd that wasn’t mentioned in this article is perhaps fear itself. To me that is top two on the list. Ever since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 American tourists have been very hesitant to travel abroad for the obvious reasons of possible hijacking or even an attempted suicide bombing in an International city known for high tourist activity or maybe they don’t want to ever have to go through airport security because it’s a pain. I also think money is the other big issue. Not only do you need to shell out money for a passport to begin (which makes sense on why American passport rates are low, because they aren’t cheap) with but unless you know a person that will let you stay with them for your duration the prices for hotel and air fare could cost dang near 3,000 dollars plus depending on location and time of year. So I ask myself why the American tourism is higher amongst US citizenship and came up with this, for starters we have been in a recession for some time and it has especially spiked within 2 years. That means people are depending on unemployment if anything at all and let’s be frank it is still one heck of a pay cut from what you were used to. So people might not have the money to shell out for international travel. I also agree with the article when the one fellow basically says there are many different cultures mixed in the United States, so why pay the thousands to fly internationally when you can drive for a fraction of the cost and not have to deal with airport security. I also agree with the vacation time, people are more afraid to take the time off that they earn especially in chunks which is how you need to do it to fly internationally for the simple fact they don’t want to get behind. It is a lot easier to take a Friday off and spend time with the family at the beach for an extended vacation knowing that you won’t be too far behind in your work on Monday.