Arkansas Blog

Geesh. On events like this you get torn between "hangem high" and wondering what shapes a person into such despicable acts of desperation.

I kinda think like a church break-in isn't anti-God, neither is a break-in of the humane society anti-dog & cat. It's about money...something to pawn. I sat at the rest home last night and listened to a large black female aid talking on her cell phone. For the next 8 days she will be working back to back 7 am to 11 pm shifts. She was worrying about how to get a ride home because she doesn't own a car.

If I was her I'd quit the rest home and spend all my time breaking into churches and humane societies....I know she'd make more money and the hours would be a whole lot better. I figure on her 5th or 6th day of 7 to 11 shifts she'll probably kill a few old people at the home......all I can do is pray she's not working Ma's wing. Being poor is actually worse than it looks on TV or at the movies.....being poor in the richest nation on earth really sucks.

It must be the drugs, eLwood. We have too many young men among us who can't earn a living legally because they can't pass a drug test and/or because of their criminal record, which probably has something to do with drugs. Of course, some of them have never tried to earn a living legally, but the drugs/drug record is a giant barrier to those who want to work. And I don't have a solution to offer. Incarceration is not really the solution, because these guys need a job when they finally get out, and no one will hire them, so the cycle continues.

Pavel, that is truly sad, if true and I have no reason to doubt it. I have not worked with the situation and have never surveyed young criminals. Mostly I've been around white collared criminals who can afford good lawyers, and some are lawyers! When they get released they have connections for pardons, or political connections which allow them to work via a religion like Chuck Colson.
Prisons used to teach inmates marketable skills.
Here we have the nation clamoring about ILLEGAL immigrants coming here for jobs nobody wants while needy youthful offenders must return to crime because of their records.

The situation is not totally dismal, eLwood. Many employers will hire ex-offenders. However, for those who choose to become useful, contributing members of the community, the road back to legitimacy is not easy. Remaining clean is a real challenge.

I haven't had anything to fear for years, but I am still not peeing in a cup to get a job. The first day I show up for work loaded or hung-over....fire me, but my urine is sacred and if my wife would permit it, I'd use it to make one of those floating ball thermometers I see for sale at the mall. Back off.....the urine is MINE!

DBI, I wish it was that easy for all of us. My last three jobs have all required a drug test as well as a criminal background check. To support may family, I willfully submitted.
Personally, I don't think a little pot should make one ineligible for employment, but as a business owner, I also think they have that right.

I have hired many ex-offenders and at the start they are very glad to get a chance but $10 or $11 an hour will get you depressed after a while.

$400 a week minus taxes, minus child (s) support, minus probation fee, minus fines and the fellow works 40 hours and hardly has enough cash to pay rent, buy beans and a couple 40 ouncers. After a couple weeks of that the life of crime becons.

Education and understanding business is my biggest problem. Reading is poor and math is nonexistant but I can teach the use of a tape measure. Comprehending the difference between a gov't agency and a private business is the problem.

If an average person can assemble a hundred widgets in an hour and scrap one or two but another fellow puts together 20 and 5 are scrapped it is obvious to a business major that there is a problem. If I can pay the average guy $15 per hour plus benefits I can't even afford to let the slow/scrapper guy volunteer, he costs more in wasted material than I can sell his 15 good units for.

This concept is foreign to these guys.

So Pavel, you are right. The prospects for ex offenders is dismal because we have allowed the deck to be stacked against them.

Tonight's news reported the Humane Society has probably lost around $30,000 in theft and damage. They're in desperate need of funds to replace medicines - most of which were stolen - for the animals. Please consider making a donation - online at www.warmhearts.org - or to 14600 Colonel Glenn Road, Little Rock, 72210.