Blue Owl Brewing
Texas Prisons as Bad as Iraq
RECEIVED Fri., May 28, 2004
Dear Editor,
I have just finished reading Michael King's article "Pardoned by Satan" [News, May 28], and my heart is saddened. Many of us live in fear, but our fear should not blind us to the events of our material world. Photographs have been shown from Iraq, but those photographs could have easily come from inside our own Texas prisons. Most people don't know that there is no air-conditioning or central heating for offenders in Texas prisons. Prisoner rape is common, but little is done to decrease it – much less stop it. The karmic consequences of not treating another human being as a human being I don't even want to think about. I challenge my fellow Texans to drive to Huntsville after making a visitation appointment with an offender in a maximum or "super-max" security prison and look the person straight in the eye. If compassion is not the first thing you feel, then I recommend you contacting your clergy of choice ASAP.
I have just finished reading Michael King's article "Pardoned by Satan" [News, May 28], and my heart is saddened. Many of us live in fear, but our fear should not blind us to the events of our material world. Photographs have been shown from Iraq, but those photographs could have easily come from inside our own Texas prisons. Most people don't know that there is no air-conditioning or central heating for offenders in Texas prisons. Prisoner rape is common, but little is done to decrease it – much less stop it. The karmic consequences of not treating another human being as a human being I don't even want to think about. I challenge my fellow Texans to drive to Huntsville after making a visitation appointment with an offender in a maximum or "super-max" security prison and look the person straight in the eye. If compassion is not the first thing you feel, then I recommend you contacting your clergy of choice ASAP.
The Rev. Russell Scott Carpenter
