The Parole Board's Dilemma

I've had time now to think about what the men said at our last meeting. Their comments contained three hard nuts to crack: 1) A lot depends on the in-house parole officer's attitude, skill and effort; the parole workers in the Upstate area are harsher, older and more bureaucratic than Downstate, who are more on the prisoner's side, more active and motivated. The Parole Commissioners take the parole worker's recommendations. 2) An inmate can work the system or work himself, and no one can tell the difference just by looking at a file [And even he doesn't know how well he has changed]. 3) Who is more dangerous, the man who murdered his wife and has served 30 years in prison, attending AA, anger management and violence prevention workshops and has obtained a graduate degree, or the 25 year old gang banger who has led a life of desperate violence and no introspection, but has never been caught and convicted of a felony, or the drunk driver? Whom should the public fear?

My reactions during the discussion were predictable. I wanted to figure out a way to train and motivate the parole office workers in Upstate, to make them more compliant. I wanted to figure out a way to investigate and interview better to ensure that the rehabilitation of the inmate is more reliable, and I wanted to advocate for the men to help the public understand that they should be accepted back into society. That is me all over, Mr. Fixit, the solutions guy. But time is short. I don't have the lifespan ahead to accomplish that, nor the energy. It would take massive effort to reshape Parole, and massive effort to effect Society, if it can be done at all.

So what is one volunteer supposed to do? I can do what the Cephas volunteers started 38 years ago: visit the inmates, offer active intelligent listening, and bring their conditions ouot to the world. I can encourage them to work on their own issues and grow, not to earn release but to be better. I can ask the society I represent and which put them away, to keep them in their minds and hearts. I can advocate as best I can. But like the inmate, I cannot make success my goal. Instead my goal must be that I changed within myself and made witness to the people around me. It is up to others to join me and it is up too the community to change. It is not up to me to impose change. That is hard for Mr. Fixit.