Can't You See...Governor

Back in college, a time long ago and far away – the late 1970’s – I’d sit around at night in my dorm room with friends and we’d put different records on (records, for those born after 1985 were large, easily scratchable recordings; four times the size of a CD) the stereo and hang out.  At that point in time the phenomena known as southern rock was going strong.  Bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, 38 Special and the Charlie Daniels Band, took over for the granddaddy of the movement:  the Allman Brothers Band.  One of the best bands in the southern genre was the Marshall Tucker Band.

Anyway, we’d sit around, shots of Jack Daniels and cheap beer in hand and we’d listen and memorize lyrics.  After a couple of rounds of drinks, we’d be singing along with MTB’s lead singer, Toy Caldwell (great name for a bearded redneck in a ten gallon hat:  “Toy”).  The Marshall Tucker Band’s biggest hit was “Can’t You See”, a song by a guy who was fed up with the treatment put on him by the woman he loved.

“Gonna take a freight train
Out of the station
Don’t care where it goes
Gonna ride a southbound
All the way to Georgia
Jump off
Nobody gonna know
Can’t you see
Lord can’t you see
What that woman
Been doing to me …”

Many times, writers and poets have referred to their land, their home, using the feminine pronouns “she” or “her”.  Toy Caldwell’s tune suddenly hit me the other night as I read a piece by a conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat bemoaning this country’s broken prison system.  “Hey Governor McDonnell”, I thought.  “Can’t you see what your prison system’s doin to me”… and the eight million residents of Virginia?

This past Thursday, USA Today contributing columnists Cal Thomas (a conservative Republican) and Bob Beckel (a liberal Democrat) took on America’s broken prison system.

Commenting on the current political paralysis that led to the Supreme Court ordering 30,000 California inmates released (“the California system was incompatible with the concept of human dignity”), Conservative Thomas said:

“Democrats and Republicans both tend to hold ideological positions when it comes to prisons, and what we’re left with is being warehoused rather than rehabilitated.  Billions of dollars [$60 billion per year] are being wasted in the process…”

Liberal Beckel added:

“We could begin to assess which inmates are a true threat to society.  If they are in for nonviolent crimes…do they need to be behind bars?  No.”

Added Thomas:

“The United States has roughly 2 million people incarcerated… That’s the equivalent of New Mexico’s entire population and more than any other country.  It’s time to re-examine the philosophy behind incarceration.  We continue to apply a 19^th century solution to a 21^st century problem.”

Why “can’t you see” what’s so obvious Governor McDonnell?  Why do you lack the political cojones to do what is right for the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Your prison system is badly broken and in need of major repair.  Political rhetoric won’t cut it.  Real change is needed.

As Beckel notes, an effort has to be made to actually rehabilitate and restore prisoners to society.  Recidivism, he suggests, has more to do with the fact that people are sent to prison.

“I strongly suspect that when many first timers are sent to overcrowded, violent prisons, they leave there damaged and handicapped by the system.”

As I have repeatedly noted in this blog, Governor McDonnell is quick to tout his “re-entry” initiative, yet it is the same old story.  We need real change.  Job training and addiction programs cost less for six years than a one year prison stay.

And, conditions in prison are, as Bob Beckel notes, deplorable.  Wretched living conditions do not help the rehabilitation process.  Treat people inhumanely, warehouse them, do nothing to address their underlying mental health, addiction and criminal issues, and you create a more bitter, less productive citizen.  It’s common sense.  Can’t you see that, Governor?

Justice should be a two-prong solution.  First, deter future criminal conduct.  Second, restore the victim and offender.  Prison does not deter crime.  Neither does prison restore the victim or the offender.

For the past three years I have lived an inmate life.  Nothing that DOC has done or can do will lead me to not embezzle.  I’m a different man than I was when I was arrested.  That transformation came about in spite of the brutality and faith and lack of compassion and complete mind-numbing waste of time that is DOC.

No, what transformed me was the restorative power of God.

Every week some think tank, some courageous politician steps up and says “enough is enough.  Its time for a change.”

Governor McDonnell is eighteen months into his term as Virginia’s Governor.  The evidence is in front of his eyes.  He can do the right thing or the politically expedient thing.  But, eventually the right thing will be done.  Virginia can’t continue to incarcerate 40,000 inmates.  Virginia can’t continue to spend $1 billion on a prison system that fails to rehabilitate, restore or prevent recidivism.

“Can’t you see” Governor McDonnell what is so obvious?  “Can’t you see” what your prison system is really doing?  “Can’t you see?”