My wife is a nut about saving money and recycling. I was just walking around the house, looking for a scrap of paper to write a list on. I told my wife what I needed and she went into our media room and grabbed an empty envelope that she had saved from the incoming mail. She tells me that when she goes through our incoming mail every day, if the back of the envelope is blank she saves it. She uses it later to write notes, make lists, and put coupons or bank deposits into. Sometimes I think she is too frugal, but I know that every penny she saves is a penny I can spend on fun things, so I try to humor her!
I was just reading an article on the MSNBC news website that a lot of states are considering early release and no parole for a lot of their prisoners that were not convicted of violent or sex-related crimes. I understand that there is a huge budget restraint, but I have a lot of concerns about that. I don’t think that many of these folks will be able to find legal and decent jobs once they are released and because of that they will turn back to crime in order to make ends meet.
I happen to know a few people who have done jail time, and they don’t have jobs. They’ve been looking for work but can’t get hired because of their prison record. How are they to support themselves? Go on food stamps and collect some kind of welfare check? Go back to stealing and selling drugs? This really concerns me a lot. These prisoners need rehabilitation and guaranteed jobs before being released back into the community. It’s not enough to be released from jail with good intentions of getting a job, they need a guaranteed job or it just will not work.