His Scars Tell His Story

Thank You for reading and leaving a comment, Lilt.

I didn't cook him f-f-f-fava beans!... We had fillet steak and vegetables. The steak had to be extra tender, because Dave only has four teeth.

Vive la difference indeed, polly! What would life be without it? One big group on EP called "I am exactly the same as you", and we all write the same story? It is characters like Dave that make life the wonderfully diverse experience it is.

Thank You for your comments about trust and respect, and the complementary nature of friendships. It is a basic healthy human response, if someone treats us kindly, to wish to help them somehow in return. (Maybe it's part of *ubuntu*?)

As I wrote in my story, Dave's past is quite literally etched into his skin, and is an unavoidably large part of who he is today. But his crime was never his whole person, his entire story. I don't think of him as 'Dave the Murderer'. In fact, I think of him as 'Hairy Dave', as he has very long hair and a beard, and there are several Daves nearby. (One of these is "Dodgy Dave' and I won't be inviting him for dinner -he would steal my steak knife!)

I am certainly no expert on the criminal mind, polly, but I think I am a decent judge of character, and I'd say Dave's chance of reoffending would be next to nil.

Thank You for more heartwarming comments, everyone!

HeartOnnaLiveWire, I am sorry to hear about your husband's incarceration, and especially sorry to read that you feel noone understands why you are standing by him during his sentence. I think the reason is clear enough: you love him. I am sure you will find many here on EP who *do* understand, including members of the groups dedicated to people in just your situation. Anyone with any sensitivity can see how the imprisonment of one family member punishes the whole family, and not just the convicted offender. Your husband is lucky to have your dedication and support.

Polly, you are spot-on again in saying that we all change and grow throughout our lives, and noone deserves to be chained to their past.. Anyone who is determined to make positive changes in their lives -to start all over again at 50+, in Dave's case- deserves the support and trust of their community. I do hope to post some more stories of Dave's in the days to come.

Gryfnn, I Thank You for your generous assessment of my writing ability, and hope to live up to it.

Androo, I am glad your heart was warmed by my story, twisted as it is! (The story, I mean, rather than your heart!)

Fascade, I am pretty well certain that at least in Dave's case, prison did eventually fulfill its ideal aim of "correction", rather than just the warehousing of the dangerous, the violent, the addled and the unlucky. Unfortunately, in Dave's case the system worked to "correct" him through the sheer weight of years and pain, rather than by offering him alternatives to a life of crime through education and counselling. He is a beaten man, in many ways, but what survived intact was his humanity. I am not sure if inviting Dave to my home was because I am an especially friendly or trusting person. I think it was just that I met him literally metres from my from door, he expressed a simple need -to light his cigarette- that I knew I could fill, so I did. As to his rough appearance, it did not disturb or influence me, as there are quite a few people who live near me who look a little different from the 'normal' middle-class population... and I am no oil-painting myself!

Chipperchick, you make a good point about people not being considered human after serving their penance. The irony is that so often penal systems are set up to dehumanise inmates, so it is surprising that so many still manage to survive the prison experience with their humanity intact. I am interested, also, in your choice of the word "penance", which I take to imply that the inmate has undergone a process of self-assessment and attempted to attone for their criminal acts. I wish the various systems had this as their focus, but unfortunately it seems that containment of prisoners' collective criminal energies is the major consideration. I Thank You also for your comments on my coronary capacity! Ithinkitisamberdextrous'sheadthatisgettingbig!

Thank You, jb, for your insights. Dave needed help at a time when governments worldwide were touting the virtues of "deinstitutionalisation" which basically meant closing many of the mental hospitals. Governments loved it because they saved heaps of money on acute mental health services, and they sold it to the public as a case of giving people the chance to remain in their communities, even though they were mentally ill. Unfortunately, little of the money saved went towards keeping tabs on people like Dave and providing him with the medication and counselling he required. Like many others, Dave slipped through the cracks in the system, lapsed into a psychotic state and committed his crime. Instead of swapping a mental health institution for the safety and support of his community, he swapped it for prison. It is a far too common story.

Thanks for reinforcing the fact that whole families suffer when a family member is imprisoned. I would take it a step further and say that the offender's whole community suffers, by having a potentially productive citizen wasting time in a toxic atmosphere. I have read that more than one per cent of the US population is currently imprisoned. Given that a large majority of these are fit young men and women, that amounts to an enormous waste of valuable human resources.

The only real possibility of a solution to these problems lies in the direction of crime prevention, early detection and treatment of mental illness, and community support for genuine rehabilitation programs. Unfortunately there are too many prisons run by private enterprise, such as Wackenhut Corporation. In those facilities, the aim is to make money for shareholders, which means keeping costs to a minimum. And the incentive to rehabilitate offenders is reduced, as these corporations don't mind at all if their human cattle keep coming back and back.

Thank You, Polly! You are right that Dave is showing new parts of himself through his artworks. His enthusiasm in describing his pictures to me lit up his whole face! Who knows how different his life may have turned out if he had been able to access this form of self-expression all those years ago?