While I am a firm believer in capital punishment, I also know that the families of inmates are victims themselves...not of the state, but of their law-breaking relative. I work with the children of inmates, some as young as four and others as old as seventeen. Most live in poverty...daddy is in prison, not at work. As if the emotional roller coaster of being a teenager is not enough, they have the additional burden of shame, guilt, and embarassment. Many are ostracized at school due to the stigma of having an incarcerated parent. These children suffer daily, and I would never dream of telling them to suck it up and get over it. Regardless of one's feelings on crime and punishment, it needs to be recognized that there are other victims of a criminal's actions aside from the obvious. That their victimization stems from their relation to the inmate does not make it any less real or any less painful.