Start blog

This blog is meant as a forum for people who have been cast out by society and have little to say in their lives.

As a psychologist I can firmly understand why a justice system would want to punish a criminal. It gives victims and their family a sense of justice AND it will teach people a lesson. Or so it is hoped. From a behavioral perspective this would be very right: you commit a crime, you suffer the consequences and you learn. This far I am all for it.

But there is another side to this. a side you get to know when you get to know the person or spirit behind the criminal. That side is the side of a system that believes so much in punishment that it hardly leaves chances to reform. A system that is corrupt to the bone (once one of my pals had a bad phase in which he was using pills...however can someone get his hands on drugs when he canot even touch his family when they visit? I rest my case).

What on earth would I want to write to prisoners for? Well...that all started when a dutch minister was speaking about getting the death penalty aproved in the Netherlands. I was absolutely appalled. I wanted to do something about it...but well politcis is not my thing. When I watched a program on TV about it, I got to hear about inside-outside, a Dutch foundation that helps prisoners on Death Row or with a Life sentence to find friends.

Since then I have lost a good friend to the Death Penalty. and I have gotten to know a few persons behond the criminals.

I hope you'll get to meet them. Snail mail is slow, so i might not have much to tell you soon, but I will try keep this Blog updated.

Cathelijne