Lives of total dependency in cages help no one. Not keepers, prisoners or society trying to protect itself. To treat a person as though they will never have an opportunity for revenge and then releasing them with hearts full of fear, resentment, anger and rage, guarantees that society will pay a price for way they treat people who were most often fellow victims, long before they turned to crime.

In Orwellian double speak, society talks of caging people as criminals paying a debt to society. The fact is reverse. Society is creating a debt to offender, turning a marginal life into a hopeless and useless life. Society is restricting a person from any opportunity to contribute to society he or she offended; allowing no opportunity to support a family for which they may be responsible; innocent victims of terrible, thoughtless social policy.

Society has so long applied this cruel punishment that its debt to criminal element cannot be paid. Just like debts owed Native Americans and descendents of African slaves. We can go ahead and live our lives as though no debt existed and we do. America will pay in blood, terror and plague - death and destruction. It is a sad thing we have so chosen. Divine justice does not allow for life in cages or a few living well from misery of many.

The rehabilitation of social offenders will not prevent judgment of a dispassionate, unrepentant people, long past due. It could create pockets of mercy within that judgment. Perhaps you and I will know a little of that mercy. Perhaps you and I will make some effort to end a social injustice that is worldwide and centuries old. Perhaps you and I will no longer ignore problems some are paid to hide from us. Perhaps we actually do know right from wrong. Perhaps knowing difference, we will choose what is right. Perhaps but no one is betting on it.