Behind bars coping?

[soul_soother]

One of my best friends just got locked behind bars for armed robbery.. He got in a bad crowd because of his step fathers influence.. I spoke on his behalf in the court room today and he got 18 years.. How does one cope with that? He's being transfered to a town only available by plane, and our new state law is starting to charge 2$ to connect and a 1$ a minute for phone visitation..

 

The whole case was BS beyond reason... anyway I'm really in the slumps hard and need some guidance on how to cope with this.

[greensleeves]

I'm sorry for what you're going through, but if he took part in an armed robbery he is now forced to suffer the consequences. It's a very serious crime and if someone had been killed or injured, he could be facing a much worse penalty. People know right from wrong and anyone over the age of 15 can't really blame "getting in with the wrong crowd" as a defense. He could have refused to take part and walked away from the situation.

 

If you want to offer him support while he is in prison, you can write him letters and visit him if you're able to.

[Alicia85]

Mistakes are a part of life, we all make them, and sometimes GOOD people make BIG errors in judgement. If you think about it most people in our world (yes YOU!) have committed some sort of crime at some point. Who hasn't driven when they were over the legal alcohol limit? Who hasn't gone a mile (or 20! over the speed limit? Most everybody can probably think of SOME "crime" they have committed before (if those are too extreme, how about jaywalking? littering?). Since we have all probably committed a "crime" before, guess what, we're criminals! However, some of us criminals go to jail and some don't... depends on who got caught and who didn't. Since your friend got caught, it is his destiny to go to jail to learn a lesson in his life that he is supposed to learn. However, 18 years IS excessive, and personally, as a taxpayer I do not want to feed, clothe, and shelter your friend for so long when he made a mistake so I hope they let him out early for good behavior. With that said, the prisons do exist for a reason, which is to protect society from people that are potentially dangerous, and armed robbers are a dangerous sort. The prisons are overloaded however, with people that are given ridiculously long sentences, and I especially do not like it that we send people to prison for the "war on drugs". That is my opinion