Whatever happened to the fat guys holding shotguns and sitting on horseback watching convicts working at the side of the road clearing ditches and picking up trash? Oh wait! Thats cruel and unusual punishment now. How can you rehabilitate prople who have never been habilitated in the first place??
Charlie
Texas still has Chain Gangs and you will see around 50-70++ chained together with at least 5 officers on horseback-each armed with a shotgun, a .357 and on out-rider with all those and a sniper rifle--just in case a few decide to become Rabbits.
PS, I have seen some rehabilitate. Three come to mind-one was called "Red" because of his hair color. Red-was an avid Fisherman and lived for anything to do with fishing. When he got out of prison--he started a fish-charter business and is now pretty darn successful and has a business near Houston or Galveston.
Ramos-was another who did his time and is now a decent contributing member of the community. He loved cooking and now has a restaurant in Houston (I dont know the name of it but--its a Mexican restaurant) and he's already opened two restaurants in the area in a year of operation.
Another was a black gentleman who admitted to me of always being in trouble one way or another since he was 8. Well, he's been driving for a local bus company for about 10 years now--and has been asked to accept a promotion to supervisor--but has declined since hes making more as a driver-than he would be as a supervisor. There are success stories out there-but not as much as I would like to see.
I had two friends when i was growing up--Hans as well as Tony. Hans always was in trouble--and back in the day-he appeared before Judge Garza--who was a great Judge and person all around-as well as a great friend. The Judge decided not to send him to prison for a lengthy term--and back in the day when the military took these types--he was given a chance to join the military--or go to prison. Hans took the advice and joined the Navy. Hans recently retired as a Master Chief (I am not keen on Navy ranks but I take it he was a high-ranking NCO.
Tony--was always in trouble-=-mainly because his twin brother goaded him into it. Tony tried for years to stay away from his troubled Brother. Tony had a girlfriend who was pregnant with his kid--and all he wanted was to become a good Father. Long story short--Troy got Tony drunk one night and they both hated someone by the name of Mandy?? and Troy tried talking Tony into going and killing him-as they both hated his guts. Tony got drunk--even had Troys pistol, he came over to my house at about 2Am-my dad was still awake and let him in to see me. I was asleep but gladly had a talk with him. Tony told me Troy wanted him to go kill the guy they hated but-he figured I would talk him out of doing it as I was the only one he trusted to come to for advice.
I talked him out of it and said he should stay with me the night and sleep it off-as we had a busy day the next day (I had my own business and Tony had been working for me for about 2 months when Troy came back into his life. Tony had been doing extremely well until Troy came back around. Well, Tony went to lay down on the sofa in the living room and I went back to sleep thinking nothing more on it and expecting to wake up next morning-feed tony breakfast-and get to work. Well, im guessing at around 4am--Tony not able to sleep--left and wound up breaking into someones home while they ere there and sleeping--went into their bedroom and the male actually heard Tony grab his car keys-but Tony was gone before anything happened. He stole the car (still being very angry about what his brother wanted him to do-figured he would go on a short joy ride--but wound up meeting Troy--who gave him a couple bottle of wine--and Troy--knowing how his brother reacted when drunk--was really trying to get Tony mad enough to go kill Mandy.
Well, Tony-thankfully--didnt go look for him to kill him, but decided to drive to Corpus to get away from Troys influence. Well, Tony being blind drunk--was driving the wrong way on a local HWY--when he stopped the car--dropped his wallet out the side of the door-as well as Troys pistol, and some ID cards. Then Tony figuring the only way to bot eventually become like his brother--took his owe--as well as a person oncoming on the HWY) life by driving head-on into another car-killing that driver. This happened on the 10,000 block of Leopard Street here in CC.
Tony HAD been doing his best to stay clean--and more than proved it to me by working his behind off--with me-but his maniac twin brother--kept messing up the pond by throwing not only pebbles into it--but boulders. I still blame Troy to this day--for what his brother did-because Tony would NOT have done anything like that had he been left alone. I also blame Tony of course--but not near as much as his brother. Well--both are deceased now--Troy finally blew his brains out about 2 years after Tony died. I lost a great friend thanks to his brother-and ill never forget that.
