About a year ago, I was on the jury for the trial of three young men accused of attempted robbery. In addition, one of them ( I'll call him Joe) was accused of assaulting a Seattle Police officer during a buy/bust operation that got out of control. This young man (18 years old at the time) was convicted and sentenced to two years in prison.
As a result of my jury experience, I later got involved with the Post-Prison Education Program and, a few months ago, Joe applied to join the program upon his release from prison. He was released last Wednesday. Most PPEP students are in their 30s or 40s and have spent significant portions of their lives (often 10-20 years) behind bars. Joe is unusually young for PPEP but, on the other hand, if he could turn his life around now, what a difference it would make!
Through his mother, Joe made an appointment to come to the PPEP offices Monday morning to meet us and make plans for his educational future. I had written a letter to him while he was in prison, saying that I had been impressed with his intelligence and self-possession during his testimony at the trial, and that he had inspired me to get involved with PPEP. I also told him a person of his abilities should be in college not prison, and that I looked forward to helping him with math or any other subject once he was in school.
Monday came and I was excited to meet Joe and fervently hoped he would be a reasonable person who was ready to make significant positive changes in his life. We knew his mother was totally supportive of him and that she herself had turned her life around, transforming herself from an addict to a responsible parent and a community activist. Such a strong woman in his life, I hoped, would give Joe a firm foundation on which to rebuild his own life.
Alas, it was not to be. Joe's mother arrived at the PPEP office alone and told us that after only a few days at home with her, her son had left for life on the streets. She was devastated that he had rejected a unique chance to build a life of hope and opportunity. Imagine a parent having to acknowledge that her son was consciously choosing a way of life that could very possibly end in an early and violent death! Another likely possibility is that he will end up incarcerated for a very long time and ever after live a life of humanity denied. The thought is horrifying and I will never forget his mother's tears or her underlying fortitude. Her last words to us as she left, which I found more humbling than flattering, were "I'm just glad there are some good people in the world."
Very sad. I had not heard about that.
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