Being that fact that I, & others like me are in prison, we are serving a debt to society. We are being punished for a wrong that we were convicted of, or plead guilty to. People don’t seem to understand that the punishment, doesn’t begin at the guilty finding, & it doesn’t end when we walk out that gate. When I got to apply for a job, all I hear is NO NO NO, we can’t have you working here because we don’t hire felons. When I apply for an apartment or house, all I hear is NO NO NO, we can’t have felons living around our nice law-abiding citizens. Because I have been convicted of crimes, that means that I don’t deserve a job or a house? I don’t have those rights? The worst part of the whole deal, is not the prison, its being outcasted from society, ostracized, humiliated, stereotyped & labeled. When do they ever tell me that I can’t have a job or that house because I AM A PERSON?

Remember folks….PEOPLE IN PRISON ARE HUMAN TOO!!! When society & the media creates these “identities” these categories, these labels & this system of nomenclature, they always attach the most ridiculous & degrading stigmas conceiveable to them. People indentify “convicts” as murderers, rapists, thiefs, drug addicts, thugs & pychos.
These names are powerful & they evoke a powerful sense of raw emotion when people hear them. The names play upon people’s fears, & when you hear them you are brainwashed to conceive: CAUTION, DISTRUST, APPRENSION, HATE, DISCOMFORT, DISGUST & you feel ABHORANCE. Now society can look down upon you like they are “HOLIER THAN THOU” & everyone has the chance to trample someone under their foot, while they elevate themselves on a pedestal. These labels are designed to put you in another prison, & another box, outside of the penitentiary, its called “PREJUDICE”. When people look at us, they see this huge colossal brick wall with spray painting on it in huge letters that says:

“This person is a murderer, this person is a rapist, this person is a thief, this person is a drug addict,” & so on. The colossal wall, hides the person behind it, so no one bothers to look behind the wall & see who is really there. People are taught to avoid us, like we have some highly contagious disease that they are 100% gonna catch if they come anywhere near us. When you are labeled, you are stripped of your identity, people fail to see the person you were before the label was attached, & fail to even acknowledge or care to find out who you have become afterward. If you do change your life around, there always has to be some excuse with hidden motives, & ulterior motives. People say:” Oh, he or she only changed because he or she wanted to get paroled earlier,” or ” He or she hasn’t really changed, he or she is just a smarter criminal.” Why cant people accept the fact that we changed because WE WANTED TO, because we WANTED TO SERVE GOD, because we are tired of hurting our families, we are tired of hurting society & we are tired of hurting ourselves…
TO BE CONTINUED

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Jonathan Gordon
DOC #793350