X'ed Out Part II

In 1998 you were rudely awakened and literally slapped in the face with the cold-hearted truth about how we were X'ing Americans out. Treating people like trash because of their past; Is that what America is really about? A person with a felony conviction in the United States is treated worse than a dog. I call it the triple E affect; 1) Excluded from the job market, 2) Expelled from society, and 3) Exiled by the system. However, I disagree with this abusive behavior. Growing up we are taught that we should treat everyone with kindness and respect, just like we want to be treated- and guess what! The power of God illustrated to the world what he guided me to write about in three highly publicized instances. First he showed a perfect example of how ex-offenders can be rehabilitated by exposing the world to the Karla Faye Tucker case. She was convicted of a gruesome crime, which she openly confessed to. She turned her life around in the end and gave it to Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, former Governor George W. Bush didn't spare her life. Tucker could have been instrumental in helping a lot of other people turn their lives around. I truly believe that she is in a far better place now than any living person is. Also, our heavenly father gave us a great example of how a person from any walk of life is vulnerable to being X'ed Out because of their past. Our former President Bill Clinton had been accused of being a womanizer, to put it as sweetly as possible, and all of a sudden everyone claimed to have been sleeping with him or harassed by him. I'm not questioning the validity of these claims, but I am saying that he is an easier target than someone who has never been accused of anything like this. That's the same way it works in the criminal justice system. Finally, how about Oprah's battle against the Texas cattlemen? How many times have we seen someone who has a lot of money get sued for something frivolous and ridiculous. This is probably not her last time to have to go through something like this. She's X'ed Out because she has an enormous amount of money. An amount that the average person could not possibly fathom. Because of that, her and many other wealthy people are targets. People survey their every move and listen to every word that comes out of their mouths to find grounds for a lawsuit. Watching the Oprah case made me ashamed to be a Texan. Ex cons are targeted in the same way. If they are close to a crime when it occurs, they are easy scapegoats for the public. If a high publicity case is pending too long, an ex-con with past crimes similar to the crime under investigation is easy pickings. From the D.A. to the judge to juries, they are more than likely to be judged by their previous crimes. What does this mean, and how far have we come? The truth is not very far. In 1998 I explained how I didn't want to discuss the unfairness, prejudice, and plain wrong doings that I have witnessed while working in the system because I didn't want people trapped in the system to rebel and get into worse trouble. However, I see that I am left with no choice. Let me explain. During the time X'ed Out 1998 edition was all over Texas newspapers and I was doing radio and TV interviews, a relative of mine and his best friend were incarcerated in Texas prisons. During the course of promoting my book with limited funds, I distributed over 37,000 copies. I'm not trying to brag or toot my own horn because I think that the reason for the success was that this was something that inmates, parolees, probationers, and their families were waiting on for a long time. Not because I'm a great writer or anything like that. After receiving hundreds of letters from X'ed Out individuals, I really feel like I owe it to them to tell it like it is and not hold back. A lot of the letters thanked me, yielding topics to explore, and basically said, "Go hard or go home." In other words, letters were saying tell it all in X'ed Out Part II, and don't hold back. "Have more balls, we need you!"

So in this edition, I will put you in the driver's seat. You will get put in the shoes of X'ed Out individuals and I will talk about several experiences that I have encountered while working as a parole officer. I think that by speaking out I can get some things changed. Foremost, my in depth probe of the wrong doings of our criminal justice system is back by popular demand. At the urging of so many people who have either bared witness to the travesties of the system or whose eyes have been opened by my expose, I promise to let it all hang out. With that in mind, let's proceed.