In the United States of America as well as in many places throughout the world...
Tens of thousands of our youth are joining gangs. Peer pressure and fear, or the hunger for meaning and purpose, or the desire to belong to something are irresistible forces that can, if misdirected, pull young persons in the wrong direction. They could venture into a lifestyle they will later regret.
How I wish I could take these wannabes, gangbangers and role players on a tour of my prison. They would see men who’ve been sitting in steel and cinder block cells year and year, many never knowing if they’re ever going to get out.
I would show them the before and after effects of the criminal lifestyle. They will find men who have come to prison facing lengthy sentences. They will observe how the years have taken their toll upon each inmate. Youthful looks have eroded. Black hairs turned to gray. Strong bodies have bowed to weakness and old age. And the dreams and hopes these men had in their youth have long since shriveled and faded.
Sadly, the guys in gangs and adolescents who’ve joined crime crews think they’re so cool. But they don’t realize the danger they’re in. Getting busted or getting killed seems so remote, as if it could only happen to other individuals and not to them. How powerfully the devil traps naïve and malleable minds with this falsehood: "It can’t happen to me!" Prisons and graveyards are filled with young persons who believed this lie.
D.B.
How I wish I could take these wannabes, gangbangers and role players on a tour of my prison. They would see men who’ve been sitting in steel and cinder block cells year and year, many never knowing if they’re ever going to get out.
I would show them the before and after effects of the criminal lifestyle. They will find men who have come to prison facing lengthy sentences. They will observe how the years have taken their toll upon each inmate. Youthful looks have eroded. Black hairs turned to gray. Strong bodies have bowed to weakness and old age. And the dreams and hopes these men had in their youth have long since shriveled and faded.
Sadly, the guys in gangs and adolescents who’ve joined crime crews think they’re so cool. But they don’t realize the danger they’re in. Getting busted or getting killed seems so remote, as if it could only happen to other individuals and not to them. How powerfully the devil traps naïve and malleable minds with this falsehood: "It can’t happen to me!" Prisons and graveyards are filled with young persons who believed this lie.
D.B.
