Notes from Day Seven: Morality 101 for students and potential inmates

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One of the roles I have puts me into personal contact with prisoners several days a week. The list of woes I encounter seems limitless.

One young offender approached me and burst into tears. His first time in jail is devastating him — at least this week. He leaves, on the "outside," a high school girlfriend who gave birth to their child the day he began his sentence, which will last the better part of six months.

Another man tells me about his plans to become a businessperson. And what inspires him? He grew up watching his father succeed as a crack dealer. Successful criminal businesspeople are not all that unusual, a fact that at least one provincial government has recognized. It has in place a program to steer entrepreneurial criminals into legal enterprises. On the other hand, most crime pays poorly; you either have to be quite desperate or stupid to reach for financial success as a criminal. I don't believe most crack dealers drive late-model BMWs or that pimps routinely reach "freedom (at) 55."

Some offenders have an appalling lack of awareness of the gravity of their situation. Among ones I am thinking of are those who do not feel they are under any obligation to learn to read — people who are not suffering from any learning disability, but who have nevertheless been encouraged to give up on education all together. One told me, "I don't need to read. My father got by all his life so far without reading. When I need help with reading something, I just go to my grandfather. He can read."

I am not sure how much of what I talked about with him stuck. But I did point out that without being able to read, the world will remain largely closed to him. Without reading, there will be no more education, and therefore very little prospect of work. There will be extremely little awareness of normal things such as social networking, politics, human relationships, religion, travel, hobbies, and the list goes on. Let's hope his grandfather bucks all the statistics and outlives him.

Another person told me how at the age of 14 she was out with friends one night. They were hoping for some excitement and looked for a car that could be stolen. Eureka! One was found with the keys in the ignition. After five hours of joyriding and a police chase, the car ended up crashed against a telephone pole.

Finally, one young prisoner tells me he has a girlfriend. He is 19. She is pregnant and he is the father-to-be. Her age: 39. But wait! Just this week she called to say that she has a new boyfriend. Well, "Fuck her, I'll find somebody else." And the baby? Maybe he meant "them" instead of "her." Actually he has found someone else. The mother of another inmate. I wish I was making this up.

One prison staff tells me that in times past inmates were given moral education, told what is right and what is wrong. Typically a priest, a minister, pastor or chaplain gave such education. He lamented that there isn't much of that these days.

In recent decades Canadians have become uneasy with labelling some actions as wrong and evil, and others as right and good. We may feel that the promoters of morality are not to be trusted. Who are they, after all, to pass judgement? And with the loss of influence of Canadian churches in the past century, moral teaching took another hit.

Perhaps even more influential, media portrayals of crime, lust, greed, violence and rudeness make it seem that we can engage in any and all of it without suffering any real harm. Even if things do go awry, we can always, we are told, get help. More technology, such as surveillance cameras and new prisons, will clean up some of the mess. And we can always count on others to bail us and our children out: the medical establishment, counsellors, correctional facilities and even priests and ministers, as long as they don't lay on the morality and guilt too thickly.

If you grew up in a Catholic community where the moral life was taught and valued, stay with it. If you have been part of a Protestant church that connected the dots between actions, thoughts and God, stay with it. If and when you have kids, take them to church every single Sunday. If you have an inner sense that good is good and wrong isn't, don't let go of that. If you believe that "bad company corrupts good character" (the Bible), and that you must "love your neighbour as yourself" (also, the Bible), you are on to something.

As it turns out, there is something worse than the overuse of some moral labelling. And that's a moral compass spinning out of control.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.