Washington DOC Releases 3200 inmates early:



If you read a headline like the one above it could certainly strike fear into a community. Like all of a sudden there is going to be a Mad Max superdome incident, free for all, hide your children and wives! Like the gate opened and we all decided to make a run for it.

Sounds good, but in reality it's nothing like that. What really happened was a computer glitch that over the course of 13 years released 3200 inmates an average of 49 days early. Now I get that the criminal has to pay for what he has done, and mistake or no mistake he still should serve the sentence that was given him. This is less for the state's letter of justice and more for the victim's sense of satisfaction. Which is understandable and justified. After all, some of us in here have committed some horrible acts of crime.

I feel for the victim's and their families. Without using a ton of words and breaking out my thesaurus, it just flat out sucks.

But, some of these guys have paid there debt to society. After all, Washington state is not a penalization only state, its a corrective state. The whole point of going to prison in Washington is to be corrected. Meaning that when you come here, you learn a lesson and you get out and become productive. Which, if the men that are in question have not reoffended then they have indeed been corrected. Is it right then, that if they have been corrected and have been law abiding since there release (in some cases as much as 13 years ago) to have to come back and serve something as menial as 49 days.

Then again if someone coming back and serving something as menial as 49 days brings about some sort of satisfaction and sense of completion for a victim of the family, then let then come forward and say so. Give them a voice and let them be heard. By making a man come back to prison after having been corrected and learned his lesson when the victim is satisfied aren't you then creating another victim?

It's important that we all get the punishment that was handed down to us, so we have the time to be corrected and figure out what went wrong.

Should a man be punished twice for the same crime because of a computer glitch? That's not my sense of justice...


You all have a voice, you should definately start using it to the fullest of your abilities.



Jeff Utnage 823469