Monday, March 26, 2007

Felons Among Us

I'm beginning to wonder if anyone today can say they have never known a convicted felon.

The number of successful business people, political leaders, moral paragons, neighbors and acquaintances among us who have done time seems to expand so rapidly that, soon, we'll be friendless if we exclude them from our circles.

My personal count is nine, two in the last six years. Their crimes included burglary, drug dealing, armed robbery, fraud and murder. One awaits a surrender date to the federal Bureau of Prisons. Four built decent lives after their release. The fate of the other four, including the murderer, are unknown to me.

A friend wrote me recently about a former colleague police say is a "person of interest" in a murder: "I sure hope he was not involved, but I've have had a bunch of shocking discoveries recently about people I know turning out to be child molesters and such, so who knows."

How many people among the political and media elite can say they've never done business with someone later convicted of a felony? How many degrees of separation are there between dozens of Fortune 500 CEOs and people currently wearing khaki or orange jumpsuits?

Either the moral fabric of our society is fraying badly, or prosecutors and judges are putting far too many people behind bars. Set aside the underlying reason and the fact remains many people are beging forced to re-think their opinions about people who commit crimes.

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