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.