In a perfect world growing up, we are taught right from wrong. Some are even rewarded for doing good. We are punished for doing bad. We have ALL been bad at some point in our lives. Even if it was just that one time and your punishment then, was enough to convince you that the rewards for being bad were not worth the punishment. Some did not make mistakes or do any wrong in their, childhood because they were too afraid of their parents. However, as they grew older that fear grew weaker. Maybe they were just lucky and never got caught doing the bad things they did. I wonder if the parents made available to all the schools and social events their children attended a record of all the bad things they did? I mean, wouldn’t you as a parent want to have all the information you could about the children your children were hanging out with? I mean, no parent wants their children exposed to a bad influence or in a bad environment, right? It does not work that way, does it? Children also known as minors are protected from being exposed. Their wrongdoings by law are not available in public records. They are protected so that all that they, do as minors will not have any bearing on their adulthood, their chance to be upstanding tax-paying citizens of these United States. They could have killed your favorite pet dog, molested your daughter, broken into your home, and stolen all your valuables. If they get caught, they will be punished, they may even have to spend some time in a juvenile detention center or jail for minors. Then they are released and soon become adults and decide to go to work for you. Of course, you want to be safe, so you do a criminal background check and find nothing. Although he has no experience, he has a clean background check, so you put him to work. Maybe you are lucky, and he learned his lesson while incarcerated. He/she becomes one of your hardest, working most trusted workers. Maybe it was the biggest mistake you ever made, and he/she stole from you and your clients, watched porn on your client’s cable TV, scattered underwear all over their home, and no telling what else he/she did in their home while there alone for days. No reason to concern yourself though, he/she passed a criminal background check. That man you did not hire had served time in prison for beating a man nearly to death for assaulting his mother and sister and had a criminal history himself for assault and battery, well he was a good man, he was hired by another company that did not do criminal background checks. He is the hardest working, most loyal, and trusting employee he has ever hired. It may be difficult for many to comprehend but adults make mistakes too, they get punished and a lot of them even learn their lesson. They would like the same opportunities, just like you believed your minor children are entitled to. They want to be contributing, hard-working tax-paying citizens. Criminal history should be kept and made available to law enforcement agencies and judges who will decide their fate should they continue to do wrong. We should all judge people based on their own merits. Good people make mistakes. Bad people are often never known about until it is too late. Criminal background checks do not always show you who is good or bad, right, or wrong. People will show you who they are if you open your eyes. If you are going to be a judge, judge them for who they are, not who they were. They are someone’s husband or wife, mother, father, brother, or sister. They want exactly what you want, a chance to live a normal happy life. More often than not YOU are the reason a criminal breaks the law again. He/she has a family to take care of and you, along with those like you decide not to hire him/her because of a criminal record. So as any human being will do, he/she does whatever they have to, or need to do to feed their family. So, you tell me, when will the punishment end? When will they get through paying for their mistakes? People protest about how inmates are treated unfairly while incarcerated. They want them to have good food, comfortable beds, clean clothes, free access to media, TV, computers, education, job training, and much more. Why? When they get out YOU will not let them work no matter what training they receive, no matter how much more of an education they got. They won’t have good food, warm comfortable beds, free TV, or computers, they won’t have clean clothes, they will be homeless and begging on the streets for YOUR handouts until they get sick of it and break the law again so they can get a taste no matter how brief of anything even remotely close to a normal life. Then the cycle starts all over again. Punish me, punish me for believing that I deserve the same chance at having a normal life, without my past being used to keep me down. Punish me, punish me because I care about my family, and I am willing to sacrifice my life to give them a better one. Punish me, punish me because you are so perfect that you have never done anything wrong, and you think I should be just like you. Punish me, punish me because all the efforts you made to hide the wrongs your 17-year-old did will not apply to me, I’m 18.
When will you learn that I have paid my dues to society with my life? When you continue to punish me after that YOU are pushing me into a position that leaves me little choice but to do whatever I can to get money to take care of my family. I faced a judge; I was judged, and sentenced. I will NOT be judged again and again for the same things. I will not be punished again and again for the same things. Punish me, punish you.
These are simply my thoughts:
Dean Butler
