When I was younger, I never had the urge to stray from my professional path. Some of my classmates were certified troublemakers, getting called into the principal's office on a regular basis and always getting into fights. Where are these kids now? Thanks to social networking, I found out that a few of them did time in state prisons and even more of them left New York because they don’t feel the environment is conducive to a decent life for them or their children.
I chose to continue my education and complete college and not follow a
rowdy crowd. The loud mouths and troublemakers? They had a choice to
make something of themselves while they were in school. I'm sure the bad
batch of punks met their own fate – whether they're on death row or
they've successfully reformed themselves into professionals, there's one
thing I don't agree with: that earning a Bachelor's Degree while behind
bars will turn someone away from a life of crime.
When
Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he wants to bring college courses
to prison convicts, I didn't simply ask why, I asked – knowing I
wouldn't get an answer – how does getting an education change the warped
and sick mentality of a criminal?
I agree that everyone deserves a second chance in life, and getting a
quality education can lead to a prestigious career. However, there are
sociological studies which imply that even the most “intelligent”
individuals are capable of brutally murdering another human being or
carrying out a crime so horrific that you'd think they don't have a
conscience.
I propose that there is a deeper level of disturbance among criminals
which no level of education can repair. Depending on what type of crime
they committed, prison inmates had a choice – to do something with
their lives before they got
locked up. I also thought about the fact that some of the most
disturbing mass murders took place in colleges all over the country!
Just think about all the college campus shootings that took place within
the last decade. Many of the suspects were teens who were in the
process of becoming productive parts of society and, for whatever
reason, they “snapped” and opened fire in their institution.
What was wrong with Seung-Hui Cho, the senior at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia,
who shot and killed 32 people and wounded 17 others? Cho was deemed
“mentally ill” and killed himself after the heartless rampage.
Nevertheless, getting a stellar education didn't stop the 23-year-old
from taking innocent lives.
As published by Reuters in 2012, here are a couple of other college shootings which took place:
•Tucson, Arizona, October 29, 2002: A failing student shot and killed
three professors and then himself in a rampage at the University of
Arizona School of Nursing.
•Dekalb, Illinois, February 14, 2008: A former graduate student
killed five students at Northern Illinois University before killing
himself.
According to the L.A. Times, at Purdue University in West Lafayette,
Indiana, Andrew Boldt, 21, a teaching assistant, was stabbed and shot to
death in an engineering building classroom. Cody Cousins, 23, a fellow
teaching assistant, was charged with murder in the killing. Looking at
all of these statistics I've managed to round up, is it fair to say that
just because someone is receiving a college education, they're fully
functional? In my opinion, there is something developmentally wrong with
those who feel violence is the answer to their problems. Let’s get
real! A college education and degree might build a great foundation for
success for an inmate – but will it change the demented mentality and
values that got them into prison in the first place? The Bard Prison
Initiative will reportedly fund the program for inmates at six prisons
across the state, but taxpayers will be paying their way again if the
criminal strays from a reformed life and gets sent to prison again.
If you haven't sensed it by now, my faith in criminals is extremely
low and the increased number of college massacres only supports the
theory that having intelligence doesn't always mean that someone is
emotionally/sociologically sane.
Funding a program that would determine - and possibly address - a
criminal's mental problems seems like it should be a priority. We can
only hope that inmates will be able to declare the sentiments that
Sheldon Cooper repeatedly tells his peers on the Big Bang Theory: “I'm not crazy; my mother had me tested.”
http://www.canarsiecourier.com/news/2014-02-27/Telling_It_Like_It_Is/Telling_It_Like_It_Is.html
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