Orange Men in the Desert

Yesterday Kadizzle made his first foray down the trail with the prison crew.  Dressed in orange jail suits carrying trail tools eight felons, Kadizzle, and Robert the guard, who also happens to be a cage fighter took off down the rail.  We got a lot done, and everyone had a great day.  The prisoners and the guard want to do it again. The prisoners were so happy to be out in the wilderness.  Kadizzle was so happy to see how quick eight guys could fix trail problems.  In no time it was apparent that the old guys worked harder than the younger slackers.  Prisoners keep themselves from going insane by joking and ribbing each other.  The guard kicks in with his comments. The result is like a comedy routing going down the trail.  Every hour Robert has to count everyone and call the prison with the number.  When Robert made the call the prisoners could hear the dispatcher on the other end of the phone always say to Robert " I love you man".  The prisoners said " How come you never tell him you love him back?"

Robert is the ideal guy to be a guard.  He respects the prisoners, has fun with them, and last, but not least is an ex cage fighter.  In case you don't know what a cage fighter is Kadizzle will explain.  Two men get in a cage and just beat the shit out of each other until one give up.  Robert said he was part of a cage fighting exhibition that a Russian mobster sponsored in Russia.  While in Russia he was able to meet Putin.

Kadizzle learned as he worked with the orange men what a pickle they are in. They will get out of jail wanting to get a job and have a normal life, but the fist thing that will happen is they will be turned down because they have a record as a felon.  So what choice do they have when they are released?  A couple of the guys said they would love to just get out and do physical trail work.  One guy said he would love to do the work we were doing when he got out and get paid for it.   Our prison system and penal system is a mess.

Once you deal with people in trouble you quickly realize how many of them came from dysfunctional homes.
The second observation is they are not real high IQ people.  The combination of a bad family life, few work skills, and  an education that did not work, are toxic.  One thing is obvious.  It is far more productive for society to spend money on social programs than jails.  If more effort, money, and social capital is invested in these people as children the results can only be good.  It is like doing preventive maintenance on your car, it is more effective than fixing a blown out engine.