My clean laundry in prison was delivered to me by a young prisoner about 18 years old. He works hard at being a model prisoner, hoping some day to get transferred to a work camp. His crime? He killed his live-in girlfriend, ostensibly over money.
I overheard a corrections facilitator try to solicit a response to the question, “If you could go back in time, what would you change?” The young offender’s answer was a shrug of the shoulders.
He has apparently banished the horror from his memory.
What would compel any man to murder? Is society to blame?
Though most people in society seem to operate under a sullen, reluctant truce, I don’t believe people are necessarily lacking in good will, but society seems to emphasize profit and ownership to the point that the average Joe merely thinks hazily about his fellow man.
The majority have fallen into the “me or you” pattern of behavior. Some are affected by it so irreparably that sooner or later they lash out wildly at the closest convenient target — normally more mercifully than how this prisoner handled his situation, but violent eruptions are bound to occur.
