Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 6, 1991 TAG: 9104090475
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-11 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
My brother served 15 years, eight months of a 25-year sentence, with time earned for good behavior. He satisfied the requirements of his sentence and earned his right to freedom by parole.
Yet, during his confinement, what did the commonwealth do to help him? In almost 16 years, the prisons did absolutely nothing in rehabilitation or job-skills training. For prisons to do anything other than orderly warehousing, prisoners must be given something constructive to do while incarcerated, as well as some kind of aid and support once freed. The commonwealth's increased use of mandatory sentencing and the building of more prisons are a clear and costly failure.
I suggest Mr. Wilson check into Thomas L. Robinson's release from prison as having been obtained at a price - to both the commonwealth and the state of North Carolina.
I would also suggest that if Mr. Wilson does not agree to the state of affairs within the commonwealth's penal system, he should do more than criticize prisoners in the newspapers. He should concern himself with those in government who are able to change the impractical ways prisons are operated, from the standpoint both of society and the prisoners themselves. Jerry is just a person who has had a very hard life and too many knocks - the same as most poor people in the U.S.A. JOSEPH L. BREWER II MARION
by CNB