Adam Sobel Week 18 - A Ride Home From Prison

     Carlos Cervantes, a former prisoner after he admitted to attempted murder for a plea deal, decided to give back and pick up men released from life sentences in prison after California reformed its three strikes law in 2012. He said that he never got used to waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning to pick up these men in the middle of nowhere and try to help them readjust to society.

    These former prisoners are released from prison often with no family, no friends, no education, no connections, and no money or property to their name. It is very difficult for them to try and restart their lives and contribute to society after being released from prison. On top of that, there is a constant fear of them going back for some slip-up or mistake they may make.

    The prisoner that Carlos picks up in this documentary says that what he missed most in prison was being able to sit on the grass under a tree. He says that he hadn't seen a tree in around 25 years. He then said that "he doesn't have any time to waste on jail anymore", meaning that he wants to turn his life around and join society again.

    Many prisoners released into the world again have a lot of adjusting to do in the real world. Carlos hadn't seen the world in a decade while he was away in prison, and his emergence was startling because of all the change in the world. It's as if you time travel for ten years and then have to start your life all over again.

    Without a proper support system, many former prisoners struggle in the real world and have difficulty bouncing back and becoming self-sustaining.

    Carlos works to provide a support system, to help them find a home, jobs, and even just someone to talk to who understands what they're going through and the difficulties they are facing while trying to rejoin society.

    This situation is overall very unfortunate. On the one hand, these people were criminals who might've done some very bad things and hurt a lot of people. But on the other hand, they have been punished for what they did many, many years ago, and they want to readjust and become better people. Additionally, the prison system is meant to make people better in order to return them to society.

    What do you think? Should there be more support systems, financial and emotional, for former prisoners, or should they continue to be punished for their actions?

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/13/learning/lesson-plans/lesson-of-the-day-what-its-like-to-leave-prison-during-a-pandemic.html

https://nyti.ms/2k0puvl

Opinion | 'A Ride Home From Prison' - The New York Times

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