Posted on 02/14/2013 12:37:36 PM PST by San Rafael Blue
A 71 year old man with a headful of uncombed steel grey hair entered the Chicago Bank of the Commenwealth. The elderly man sported a weathered tan tweed wool jacket, with no buttons or elbow pads, and gripped a scuffed -up heavily varnished cheerywood cane as he walked slowly toward the teller. The man raised his head up to directly face her. She could see her inverted reflections in his brown bloodshot eyes, eyes that appeared flat, glazed and methodical. She has yet to forget those eyes, set just below a bushy nest of eyebrows, also untrimmed, unfettered. His name is Walter Unbehaun, who was released from prison for bank robbery two weeks prior to this incident.
Mr. Unbehaun had a written note in his left hand and pistol tucked down into his braided belt. he wanted the teller to look at them both. Mr. Unbehaun's Barreta was loaded and ready for quick use if need be, said the note. The banks' camera system shows him staring mutely at the teller, moments after displaying his loaded gun and making clear his intent. Mr. Unbehaun was so very smooth and subtle in his theft, that he was able to hobble away with over 4000. without anyone giving immediate chase. Over $4000. in crisp green american bills. The dollars had probably been marked by the bank for easier identification.
Walter Unbehaun quickly surrendered to the police when they located him the next day. He had been patiently, perhaps impatiently waiting for their arrival, not to ambush or threaten the cops, but to throw the responsibility for himself, the expenses and worry of trying to stay alive, the lack of pals and peeps and long dead gun molls who understood or at least condoned, rationalized and personally benefited from his lifestyle. Mr. Unbehaun has lived a relatively long life, albeit mostly behind bars as an adult, and he has 'Had Enough' of the worry. It was time to 'leave it in the Lap of the Gods', to quote Freddie Mercury or the legal powers that presently pretend to be of influence.
Do we need to change the ease with which someone can return to the jail system in the country? I personally know of a nephew of mine who has kind of given up on trying to carve out a life for himself. He too would much prefer just living off the state, being kept like a fat rabbit in a locked cage.
We, the family try to encourage him without getting sucked down into that whirlpool or black vortex of his own making. What's that word? Recitivism. The returning crooks perpetually add layers of new expenses on top of old ones. Maybe we need a new set of rules, run state to state. Three strikes, or three episodes where it can be proven that a criminal has purposely SABOTAGED their release from incarceration, after the third occurance, they are barred from that particular prision and sent some place far less desirable. No, I don't mean we need some new Gulags, just a few less jails that resemble Frat Houses for retired golfers. No easy answers, but we could use some of that money for Charter Schools or Schoolarships, to give hope to either children OR adults.
I think there should be more opportunity for adults to be considered for schoolarships and grants. Many adults need it more than kids, because they want to expand or refine there skill set. Many adults (like me) are still paying off ancient school loans or interest on other loans.
Ha! “Winter Quarters” indeed. Some people simply cannot be made to feel shame. A new high in lows. I have much respect for you who can pass The Bar Exam.
I have always heard that it’s very difficult for the average graduate student to pass The Bar Exam. I recall that JFK JR. (rip) had to take it four or five times before either passing it or writing a check big enough to ‘insure his success’.
I don’t mean to hijack the thread. I was thinking America might have to bring back orphanages and poorhouses if things keep going the way they are.
Especially if people become so miserable they would rather go to jail then live free
Ted Kennedy never passed a bar his entire life.
What ever you do, don’t break the law in Georgia. I toured one of their prisons as an out of state official on a fact finding trip. Just wow. The way that place was operated would scare the sh@t out of any rational person. The prisoners there were afraid. Not that they were abused or the place was dirty, it was very clean and modern. But they were treated like lawbreakers. That was serious time.
Should jails slash budget,& purposely become more Hellish?
I’ve actually discussed this with people. Take away the risks associated with dropping a bar of soap in the shower or other prisoners, time in an American prison could almost be like a sabatical. TV, library, workout room. free food and medical.
The Indiana bar was two days of nothing but essay questions. The two most intense days of spewing BS in my life. I figured it was a good way to determine who would be a good trial lawyer.
Seriously, there were several “smart” people who couldn’t take the stress and choked on the test. It is designed to be grueling.
The “Smartest Woman in the World!,” Hillary Clinton, failed the Washington, DC, bar exam.
I believe that’s when she and Bill decided to go back to Arkansas.
California has a fairly difficult bar exam also. My two nephews sweated bullets until they got their results. It’s very embarrassing to be clerking in a law firm and then told you have to leave because you couldn’t pass the bar first time around.
I’m not sure I gave any indication that I seek revenge. All I did was point out that jail is generally tougher than prison.
A couple of weeks ago, there was a story on Bernie Madoff on TV who is in Butner prison somewhere down South. Apparently, it’s a very easy federal prison. One of the imates actually said it was pleasant.
My brother was an auto insurance adjuster and had to go to a SC Sheriff's office. They had a bunch of arrestees there, all looking mean. They gave him hard looks while he was waiting to see the Sheriff. He became intensely interested in his laptop screen.
As the hard-cases were led out, the Sheriff came over and talked to my brother. My bother mentioned how tough they looked and the Sheriff laughed. He said they were going to the state penitentiary and didn't know what they were facing. He said that by nightfall, all the "hard-cases" would be traded around for a pack of cigarettes and would end up being someone's "wife".
“Mr. Unbehaun’s Barreta was loaded and ready for quick use if need be, said the note.”
He brought Robert Blake with him to rob the bank?
No convict that I know has anything good to say about jails. County, city underfunded by community, homeless shelters.
Where I grew up a surprising number of the old timers had come to town on the orphan trains during the depression. Much of the rural midwest did fairly well during the depression and farmers needed cheap help.
It sounds a bit like slavery but those kids got the same treatment as the farmer’s sons and daughters. Most of them stayed in the area as adults.
Jails are just bus stations for convicts and inmates.
You are the second one here to suggest another look at orphanages. I think the idea has merit. If properly monitored, to protect against child abuse or extreme croyism protecting stupid teachers, it could work. Any politician who dares to seriously make this happen better be ready to be demonized and villified to the max.
Remember about three years ago, when a young father of about 6 children drove across state lines to ‘bestow’ his children onto state responsibility. I know that must’ve hurt, and some of the kids will probably never, ever forgive their Dad for ‘abandoning them’. But he did put them in safe hands, he did not beat them and say ‘stop yer cryin and caterwaulin’ now did he? I don’t recall the Mom’s role in this, but he was already jobless, and could do nothing material for them at that time. That, my friends is pressure, and sad for all concerned.
Many poor people today living in Hong Kong have begun RENTING PERSONAL CAGES to live in!!! You heard me! I visited Hong Kong in 1980, while in the Navy, shortly before the British let go of it. I was so impressed that everyone was working everywhere, youn and old throughout the day. Perth, Australia was the same way back then. I know nothing about either nowadays.
, damned if you do, damned if you don’t do something. One of those people who ‘does not believe in’ birth control of any kind.
That's an awful big "If".
At this point its who would do the monitoring that worries me the most.
End recidivism by not allowing criminals to return to jail, the author says?
Somebody has been smoking the koolaid, again!
Here is a novel idea: Execute violent criminals & make nonviolent prison inmates pay for their upkeep via work. Those that wont work, don't eat. Violent inmates are executed.
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