City jail to remain at current location
The RTD is reporting that the proposal to move the city jail across the river is dead, and that proposals for the new jail “be made for the current site”.
The RTD is reporting that the proposal to move the city jail across the river is dead, and that proposals for the new jail “be made for the current site”.
Well thank God for that. We wouldn’t want to lose our criminals to South of the Rivah. The Mayor did one hell of a job keeping the convicts right here where they belong, close to their homes and families. I feel like quoting Dorothy: “There’s no place like home.” Well at least everyone gets a jail cell that’s in their back yard. Let’s not inconvenience anyone–family members shouldn’t have to ride the bus to visit loved ones. God Bless America!
I’m somewhat opposed to keeping it in its current location. It seems like it has become an element of the community’s culture, which is not necessarily a good thing.
Why don’t we put the new jail next to the recently discovered crack house in Windsor Farms?
Windsor Farms would be perfect! Let’s spread the love around. I am sure the residents of Windsor Farms would be highly supportive.
Michael –
Are you attempting to be cute/sarcastic?
For one, not everybody staying at the Oliver Hill Hilton is a “convict”. A good portion of the PEOPLE who are there are not convicted (yet) and are waiting sentencing, cannot make bail, etc. Not all of the folks locked up are from the East End either.
This is the CITY OF RICHMOND’s jail. We have one location… not multiple locations. It’s not like Panera Bread or a Verizon Store.
I for one (in my own cynical way) would like to see another location – maybe somewhere on Monument Avenue, at Monroe Park or at Willow Lawn. Then perhaps some of the other folks in this metropolitan area could see “how the other half lives”.
If the location of the city’s jail “was” a problem – then why has Church Hill seen such a steady growth of renovation in the past few decades? I’m not referring to those ugly towers being built at the bottom of Union Hill. What I’m getting at is that If YOU (i.e. anyone) can’t cope with the jail nearby – move to the fan, southside, or short pump. Otherwise, move on and stop complaining about the city’s lockup location.
The jail is at the bottom of a hill, surrounded by razorwire and cops galore. For the reassurance of the affluent, gentrifying paranoid of Church Hill, it also happens to be well past a “buffer zone” of elevation, public housing and abandoned properties. It’s not as if this is Escape From New York and the prisoners are running amuck.
NewGuy, I can’t disagree with you that in some capacity the jail “seems like it has become an element of the communitiy’s culture”. To me that means if you don’t like your community, do something to make it better. Don’t wish the jail or people with crappy economic/social opportunities away… DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. There are opportunities to get involved – spend a few hours a week tutoring kids, network with your neighbors, pick up trash, whatever. When people in a community care enough to put some effort into it, over time things get better. It can happen, even in Church Hill. It is happening.
Look, I’m not saying that we as a city should be without a jail. Nor am I pretending that there is no crime in RVA, our neighborhood included. But I am saying that in my opinion, the location of the jail is no threat to daily living. Sure, there is some irony in that some of the folks staying there happen to have been living nearby. But that doesn’t make me resent my neighbors, or make me wish it all to go away. I CHOOSE to live in the city (Babylon, if you will) and I am under the impression that a lot of the folks around here do the same. Many urban areas are on the rise – our beautiful and imperfect community being one of them. If you can’t make these connections and still live in Church Hill with closet resentment towards the jail/your neighbors, either MOVE AWAY or do something to help the generation coming up so that less of them are incarcerated.
Funny…did anyone happen to catch the article that described the “new” jail? They will have beds for a little over 1000 people where the jail usually houses about 1500. Way to go again city of Richmond for planning so well. The new jail will be overcrowded even before it’s built!
Also, well said Michael! I couldn’t agree more!
I love this community and I know it is continually improving but it seems like the current location of the jail impedes progress to a certain extent. It seems like the presence of a jail in an impoverished area perpetuates the culture of incarceration. Our community needs more postive influences and fewer negative influences. In my opinion, a jail is a negative influence on a community.
Michael… you have me laughing my head off – if you write up a proposal to relocate the jail smack in the middle of Windsor Farms I’ll go door to door with you from Broad Street to Nine Mile for signatures!!!
Move on, move away and stop complaining?
Church Hill’s new motto?
Perhaps we can drum up support for moving the jail to Windsor Farms with promotional t-shirts we can give away to the inmates. Perhaps the printed logo on the shirts could say: Windsor Farms or Bust!
If that doesn’t work out, perhaps we can move the jail to Belle Isle. It could be Richmond’s version of Alcatraz. Think of the tourist dollars!
Funny you mention moving it to Belle Island, since that was a key prison site during the civil war. History does seem to have a way of repeating itself.
@ mr. underhill, i really liked and agree with your post #5.
fwiw, i don’t think “Michael” would have the courage to go door to door with you along 9mile and 25th. his snarky posts reek of a class fear and hatred…its clear he’s not only afraid of the jail and it’s inhabitants, but the people simply living freely around him.
Capital Gal, I suppose you love having a jail in your back yard? Does it do wonders for you and your neighbor’s quality of life? If you love the jail so much and since you aren’t the least bit “afraid of the jail and its inhabitants”, then I strongly encourage you to ask the sheriff to find a bunk for you. Maybe you can sit around the campfire smoking dope with the inmates, singing love songs, and reading poetry to one another. Give me a break.
For those who live in reality, the jail drags down the neighborhood in numerous ways. It is hard for me to believe that given the racist historical track record of Richmond that the proximity of the jail and the public housing units to a predominately lower income, African-American neighborhood is purely coincidence. If you believe that, you are naïve. We can do better than that and should do better than that.
The mayor had a chance to move the jail out of a community and into a more industrial/non-residential area. He blew it. Our community will continue to suffer as a result. It is as simple as that.
Michael,
You raise a good point in the last paragraph on comment #13 that there was an opportunity to move the jail to even MORE of a wasteland/dead zone. Personally, I feel it is more or less in one now… huddled between woods & railroad tracks, at the bottom of an incline.
The pathetic irony of it’s current location near public housing is what steams my hide – hence my previous suggestion to move it near the yuppies who are afaid of DA HOOD.
I don’t know how much Church Hill will “suffer”, per say, with it staying at the base of Oliver Hill (who must be rolling in his grave considering his name is being used for a jail). What I do know is that it would be really crappy if in time the only way many longstanding Church Hill/East End residents were actually still in the 23223 was by being in jail.
It’s not rocket science that tells us that economic/social disadvantage leads to a higher incarceration rate. Furthermore, it’s pathetic that this is going on before our eyes in Church Hill and that (at least seemingly) many of the newer and more affluent of CH harbor a resentment towards those not as well off (i.e. those more likely to bunk down on Fairmont).
I do see merit in relocating the jail. Of course, from the standpoint that it would REMOVE the physical presence of the jail from the potential self-defeating reality of those more likely to be there.
Fact of the matter is – the jail isn’t moving. So what? No suprise – the mayor dropped the ball. We should be used to that theme by now. That’s what politicians do – both the Georgies and Obamas directly or indirectly don’t do a good job of protecting and serving the people they paid to elect them (or paid to not elect them but found a way to hold office without winning the popular vote).
So I’ll go back to my point from earlier – if you don’t like the climate of the community you live in then GET INVOLVED. I’m not trying to sound niave and optimistic. It’s as simple as that. Get involved. But being completely cynical and critical or classist will not help Church Hill. We can’t just sit by and let it become a schism of “hood”/gentrifiers.
Maybe I’m letting this all out because I see Church Hill as a model of people in general… a model in which we have a choice to accept one another and figure things out together, or a model in which people can push each other apart.
Hopefully, not moving the jail will save the city money that can be put to good use. It’s hard to track such things when you’re speaking of an institution within an institution. But, like it or not, Richmond’s jail is staying wedged between downtown and Mosby Court. That means those of us who live here need to figure out how to get along and moreso keep people in this good town from going down the route that leads them to the bottom of Union Hill.
Sorry about the minor typo or two.
I also wanted to add that if $100 Million+ is NOT being used to move the jail south of the James, perhaps with the expansion/renovation of the present facility there can be some FREEKIN’ ac. Do we need more people to die from the sticky virginia heat? Two dozen (or 200) new fans aren’t going to help much when it’s been 90 degrees or hotter three-quarters of the time this June and July.
We’re not talking about what folks did to land in jail – we’re talking about human rights here. This is not a Stalin-esque gulag or a plantation owner’s cotton feild circa 1860… this is supposed to be a civilized/humane society.
@ 13 i bet 99% of the people who bought homes in Church Hill over the past 10 years never knew the jail was down on Oliver Hill Way till after they lived in their homes for a while.
It doesn’t negatively impact our quality of life b/c it’s geographically located at the bottom of a very, very steep hill…on a street that kinda goes no where, but to the jail.
oh, and there is a good public safety reason to have it there: its close to the JM Courthouse. the shorter the drive to the courthouse, the better. you know, most smaller towns have their jail right next door to the court house. i don’t think MCV-VCU (or any of us) would like the jail next to the JM Courthouse on Marshall St downtown.
yeah, the jail sucks, i wish it weren’t there, but it is, and god bless the folks that run it. its over crowded now, and they have never had a riot or a break out in the 20 years i’ve lived up the hill from it.
it’s no worse than a steam plant, a transformer station, or any of the other super-fund sites that comprise shockoe valley.
Michael, how is the jail in a “community”? When was the last time you actually drove by it? It seems to me to be in a kind of waste land down there. It does not feel to me as if it is part of our neighborhood at all. I can’t see it, I don’t drive by it, and to my knowledge there are not any great numbers of escaped inmates wandering (or hiding) in Church Hill at large (no matter which neighborhood in Church Hill).
The last time I drove by it was about twelve years ago, when I was with someone and we’d gone to the cemetery on Hospital St. (Shockoe Cemetery?) and came down through the area by the jail. When I get off of I-95 onto 17th St., the jail is to the north, 17th is one way heading south, and it is not visible. Hence, in my opinion, it isn’t really having a huge impact on the area.
I do think the kids in the lower socio-economic areas need good influences and not bad, but I really don’t think the city jail all by itself is having a bad influence on them – they have enough bad influences hitting them from drug dealers who show off their money in various ways, and various other peer pressures. And the east end does have a preponderance of low-income projects, but the jail didn’t cause that, other factors did. (And going into those other factors is a matter for a whole other thread, not just another post on this one).
Plus I have to agree with the post that a lot of the inhabitants are not convicted of a crime, they are awaiting trial and can’t make bond. Also, since I know someone who used to work there in a mental health position, a lot of the residents are also mentally ill which may have led them to commit a crime. Plus, if someone is convicted of a serious crime, they don’t go to the city jail – they are sent to the state prison system, so it’s not like there are over a thousand dangerous murdering convicted criminals down there.
Just my humble opinion.
mr underhill, I completely agree – they need air conditioning!
#16, are you honestly saying with a straight face the jail does not have a negative impact on this community? Have you ever gone to the McDonalds in Shockhoe Bottom early on Saturday morning? It’s a regular occurrence to see/hear parolees berate the staff because they need their Egg McMuffin quickly so they don’t run late for their parole officer meeting down at the jail. I have seen this repeatedly. Ad no I don’t visit McDonald’s frequently, so this has to be fairly common.
Pulling criminals and those who visit the inmates, into our backyard does not attract visitors who make a positive contribution to our neighborhood. Rather, we are the magnet for the soon to be, or existing criminal element for the entire city. Put that on the marketing flyers for Church Hill. I am sure that would please you since it would help you attract like minded neighbors that would just love cozying up next to the fire at night with a cup of chamomile thinking about the lovely things going on next door in the jail house.
If you ask me, your nonchalant, let’s just maintain the same crappy status quo attitude is self defeating. I have an idea; let’s actually try to do things that improve the neighborhood for everyone rather than rationalizing that everything is A-OK because “they have never had a riot or a break out in the 20 years i’ve lived up the hill from it.” Call me crazy, but I don’t think we should have to settle with the fact that a jail break right in our back yard is a possibility. This is just another obvious reason why having a jail so close to your house IS NOT A GOOD THING!
Landfills, sewage treatment plants, and jails/prisons are opposed by residential neighborhoods across this country. Church Hill/East End/Eastern Henrico has to contend with all three of these undesirables. I guess I was hoping that our elected officials would help us get rid of one of the three, but no such luck.
RE: 15
Mr. Underhill, AC? Come on…I mean really? These folks are criminals! They broke the law! They did something wrong and got caught! There are good law abiding citizens living in Church Hill (and other areas to be sure) that don’t have the luxury of AC. For heaven’s sake, our troops over in Iraq and Afghanistan are heroes but live in tents in sweltering heat (much hotter than what you or I have seen in Richmond I can assure you)…they have no AC! Please help me to understand why we, as taxpayers, should put these criminals up in new accommodations, feed them, clothe them, pay the other bills associate with their incarceration AND provide them with nice, cool, comfortable air conditioning (by the way, we would be paying the electric bill to!) so they won’t be too hot. Jail is not supposed to be nice, pleasant, or comfortable. It’s punishment for breaking the law. Take a look at the jail in Arizona with inmates housed in tents outside. That seems to work well. Those inmates know their place and not many of them return to jail (yes, there was a study done). I happened to catch a TV show on it last weekend even. I suppose before AC came along everyone lived in a Stalin-esque gulag or a plantation owner’s cotton field circa 1860?
The physical presence of the jail impacts the community in a negative way. And since it will remain in its current location, the community will have to deal with it and overcome its negative influence (especially the folks who live nearby).
SEW (@ 20),
look – i teach high school in this neighborhood. when the AC in a falling apart building is not working YOU try to mold young kids to be better citizens. it isn’t easy – but it’s a job that needs done. i think it’s a matter of common sense that any place packed with people should have AC in the sticky summer heat.
get off the whole “i suppose before AC came along” trip. AC DOES exist. it should be in people’s homes, churches, schools – even in jails. just because not every human is lucky enough to be vaccinated against smallpox doesn’t mean we should “let god sort ‘em out”. when an innovation exists that helps people, it is the human thing to do to give people access to it. inoculation, literacy, hygiene, air conditioning… little things like that.
i wonder if right now you are in a unventilated room as the heat index outside is already over 90 degrees. If so, perhaps you will be lucky enough that the cooling center on 25th Street today will be open. that’s where a lot of folks who don’t have AC head in our neighborhood when it’s hot. hot enough that people DIE from the heat.
the notion behind jail in this country (in theory) is to REFORM people so they don’t end up back in jail. that’s because the constitution was inspired by humanists like Locke & Rousseau. If it was inspired by Stalin, Robert E. Lee, or George Bush we’d be in trouble. the incarceration rate in this country is the world’s highest and the recidivism rate is absurd. the population of jailed people has increased 4-5 times in the past few decades. people are often going to/returning to jail because they are set up to fail and don’t have options/opportunity.
i am well aware of joe arpaio’s “innovations”, some of which have human rights and civil rights groups raising eyebrows. do you also suggest that when the kids i teach “act up” in a undersized, overcrowded, windowless classroom that i make them wear pink jumpsuits?
by the way, what does ” ‘heaven is’ sake” mean? are you implying that heaven is a warm fermented Japanese beverage?
as far as the US military in the Middle East goes, you would think with 40% of our tax dollars going to fund military operations that by now the powers that be would funnel some of their porker-barrel spending to keep the kids over there in the shade. then again, keeping soldiers out of 130 degree shade is not a priority, regardless of why they are there.
maybe you need to watch fewer tv shows that give twelve sentences of content in 30 minutes (complete with 13 minutes of advertisements). get back to me after that. or don’t.
everybody else – well, the jail is here to stay for better or for worse. so let’s keep CH moving forward… I’m going to pick up trash across the street in the empty lot :P
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/editorials/2010/jul/21/ED-RICH21-ar-321503/
Everyone’s talking about the future but it seems like steps could be taken now to improve the jail conditions.
Chris Maxwell has suggested painting the jail roof with some light, reflective paint and putting shade cloth in windows where appropriate.
Mr Underhill,
1. Having AC in a high school is obviously not what I was talking about.
2. I didn’t say we shouldn’t vaccinate or allow the prisoners showers, etc. I just don’t feel they need AC. And, quite honestly, what did happen before AC came along? I guess everyone was sub-human then.
3. I am not in an unventilated room at the moment. I’m at work. I have a job. I work for a living instead of committing crimes. If I committed crimes like so many in the jail do (I doubt many of them are innocent) then I wouldn’t expect my jail stay to be pleasant.
4. So the incarceration rate has increased 4-5 times? What has that got to do with AC? I’m very curious about that!
5. Aripo’s “innovations” as you call them work. It’s proven. And maybe you should try the pink jumpsuit for the kid. Perhaps they would think about acting up before doing it again.
6. I said for heaven’s sake…I have no idea WTF you’re talking about in that paragraph.
7. This post is not about politics and the Middle East. I used it as an example..Let’s move on.
8. I’ll watch what I please thank you. I happen to have seen the show I was referring to on the Learning Channel…it wasn’t some mindless sitcom. Thanks for your concern though.
9. Have fun picking up the trash…there certainly is quite a bit out there!
sew
1. you were talking about people not “needing” AC. it was relevant because we are writing about the city jail at the edge of Church Hill which has none.
2. i did not say or imply you felt people at the jail should not shower. i used vaccinations, hygiene, etc as an example of things that are advancements in basic human needs. regulated temperature, in my opinion is one of these advancements. when the heat index outside is 110 degrees people should not be stuck in a small room inside.
3. so there are TWO choices in life and all it’s that simple? one makes the choice to: a.) have a job b.) commit crime? that’s it? that sounds like Stalin’s Russia – “you work for country or you go gulag…”
4. the incarceration rate increasing has no direct correlation to AC. i never implied that. but the incarceration rate has a lot to do with a overcrowded jail that is near Church Hill. the main topic here is the jail and it’s impact on the neighborhood. hopefully with people sharing their perspectives and suggestions the thread becomes a forum for common ground and understanding… at worst it shows people who care about Church Hill who the OSTRICHES are. you know… those people who stick their heads in the ground when a problem is before them (or maybe they watch tv).
Scott Burger (#23) Thanks for sharing!
5. i agree to disagree with you that Aripo’s innovations work – but i’ll tell you what. next school year i WILL teach a lesson (using sources both pro-Aripo and con-Aripo) and let my students formulate their own opinion on his methods. i might try the pink jumpsuits as well.
6. “heaven’s sake” = “heaven IS sake”…
ok, i was being silly here. a bit off topic. my apologies.
(when you said you had “no idea WTF” i was talking about did you mean “no idea ‘with the facts’”?)
7. correct – it is NOT a post about the military industrial complex, flagwaving, the TP-party, media brainwashing, how people are influenced by fox news, etc… although there are issues regarding money/policy/taxes/institutions that are strongly connected to things like where the city jail is located in Richmond. tell you what – drop the “military heros” bit, and i’ll not respond as if you’re Sarah Palin and i’m Michael Moore.
8. i hope you watch whatever you please. just remarking in my own sarcastic way that tv is not good for the human brain. even on the “learning” channel, someone in front of the boob tube gets over ten minutes of advertisements for less than twenty minutes of “content”. not to digress… i’ll meet you for a beer if you want to discuss 7 or 8 further.
9. thanks. there will be more trash scattered tomorrow and every day beyond that, but i’m fine with picking some of it up. lord knows there’s enough to go around…
Folks, let’s assume most who have posted genuinely care about the neighborhood but may disagree on some other related topics related to incarceration. Let’s get back to the primary topic at hand; we don’t want the jail here. Is it in the group’s opinion that it would be a waste of effort at this point in the process to try and get the mayor to reconsider?
I would be happy to try and get the initiative started, but I simply don’ have time to make this my full time job for the next 30-60 days. Thoughts?
We really need to move the jail. It is ruining the public housing project’s historic view of the railroad tracks and interstate.
In all seriousness:
1. The jail should not be too far from the court building. It would end up costing more for taxpayers the further away it is.
2. It is in an area with other industrial style buildings, not homes. Most people wouldn’t know it was a jail if it were not for the razor wire fences.
3. The jail provides a lot of jobs for people in our area.
4. The problem with the general area is the huge tracts of public housing and concentrated poverty, not the jail. The criminals in jail are not the ones I’m worried about.
5. There could be an effort to decentralize some of the things at the jail. It would not be cost effective to build several smaller jails but it could be possible to put parole/probation officers at other locations. I’m not that familiar with how they are set up now though.
6. Schools should have priority over the jail in terms of AC. But the jail should have AC too. AC in the jail will cost money, but how much do you think it will cost when the city is sued by families of people die from the heat. Many of the jail inmates are actually mentally ill and don’t deserve to be tortured. At the very least provide AC for the older inmates or ones that have medical conditions.
7. The city needs to find a better way of releasing inmates. Not just kicking them out the door with just the clothes on their back and saying good luck.
Michael #26, yes I think it would be a terrible waste of time to try to get the jail moved. The reason is, I agree with j in #28 as posted: “4. The problem with the general area is the huge tracts of public housing and concentrated poverty, not the jail. The criminals in jail are not the ones I’m worried about.”
Right now, I can’t even remember how to get onto Oliver Hill Way up that far so as to SEE the jail, it’s been that long. That’s a one way street heading south, and you have to go north of the jail then turn down somewhere to pass the jail.
Sorry, I seriously think you’d be wasting your time. Plus I doubt the general neighbors in Church Hill would be supportive or even care (they didnt’ turn out in numbers to fight the move the Daily Planet down there), and it appears the city administration has made up its collective mind. Would take a lot of political power to fight that. Best to spend your time on more productive things, whatever they may be.
@j- “The city needs to find a better way of releasing inmates…”
If you truly feel this way, support Virginia CARES [http://www.vacares.org/] and Boaz and Ruth [http://www.boazandruth.com/]. Both offer assistance to those re-entering society, but constantly battle with funding shortfalls and fundraising (as do most non-profits.)
Just curious. In whose neighborhood do you recommend the jail be located? You may have seen recently that the mayor has committed to a long range plan to provide alternatives to incarceration. An astounding number of inmates should not be in jail, they should be in (non existant) mental health facilities. A significant portion of inmates are people with substance abuse problems, who should be in (non existant) treatment facilities. The problem with the mayor’s plan is that by FY 2012 it may require a real estate tax increase. Virginia, as a low tax state, puts a reducing amount of money into its behavioral health treatment options, and it tends to fall back onto Sheriff Woody’s shoulder to deal with it.
Only because this is driving me nuts….
“6. “heaven’s sake” = “heaven IS sake”…”
While, that COULD be the break down of the phrase, I’m fairly certain SEW was using the idiom “For Heaven’s Sake” where the apostrophe shows possession, not contraction as you assumed Mr Underhill.
sean (32),
yea, i was driving myself a bit nuts on that one too by playing devil’s advocate a wee bit too much. of course he was referring to possession! what just drives me batty to all the spell-check-generation’s writing sometimes, so my being critical on that word was an overreaction.
crd (29)
you make some good points in your last paragraph. i concur. i am under the impression that many of the more-immediate neighbors to Oliver Hill are apathetic to the location of incarceration. the city brass seem to have made up their mind about keeping it right where it is. the question for all of us is what do we do to “be more productive”.
Ry (30)
Thanks for the heads up.
david (31)
completely on point there – many of the folks who are released need mental help/substance abuse help and these supports don’t exist on the scale to meet the need. not to mention, if there was a better system in place for people providing mental/substance abuse assistance then less people would even be doing things to be put in jail.
not trying to go down a full-blown healthcare debate route here, i’m just saying that people are “becoming” criminals due to lack of options, lack of education, and lack of social services. if people get more involved in social services, education and community involvement, over time it will become more manageable. we have to think outside our own boxes, otherwise the neighborhood will become a short pump mentally that happens to be close to downtown physically. i think the only people who REALLY want that is greedy developers.
voila – better community by the people in it making it one. watching cable tv and privately resenting our neighbors for being different/less educated/poorer/etc WILL NOT HELP ANYONE. social responsibility… it is possible.
ok – so the jail is going to stay planted at the same spot. like it or not, Church Hill will continue to have things that happen right here that lead to people being put into the nearby jail. but we residents can communicate, network, know our neighbors, support the precinct 1 police, volunteer if we have the time, donate if we have the cash, keep things clean and above all respect others. it’s SO crazy that it might just work…
sean,
Thanks…you are correct!
Mr. Underhill: “people are “becoming” criminals due to lack of options, lack of education, and lack of social services.” For Heaven’s Sake (Sorry…I just couldn’t help myself there…LOL) I must disagree. The lack of options, education, and social service do not a criminal make! Everyone has choices and the criminals made bad choices. I could choose to stay at home this evening and watch TV (much to your chagrin…what it is that you have against TV?) OR I would go out and shoot, rob, or assault someone. If I choose to watch TV, then I shouldn’t be locked up. But if I choose to do the other…it’s the city clink for me!
I’m sorry but I feel too many people blame society for their problems. “I’m in jail because I didn’t get an education”, “I’m a criminal because I don’t have enough social services”, bla bla bla. They are criminals because they made bad choices!
I know plenty of folks who make a hell of a lot less than I do, are not nearly as educated as I am, and could easily blame society for their problems but they don’t make the bad choices that some do so they are not locked up. It’s not society’s fault that these folks are in jail. It’s their own fault for making bad choices.
Good grief, this mr. underhill teaches high school?
…using poor grammar and bad punctuation and then criticizing the “spell-check-generation? Isn’t spell check one of said advancements? Use it!
I hope you don’t teach English, bro.
Caroline…I wasn’t going to say it…but glad you did!
WOW! Talk about out of control. Is this what 100 degrees does to people? How about instead of jabbing each other back and forth you go out and do something constructive. There are plenty of places in the city of Richmond begging for volunteers. If you have the time to ramble on and on about a topic that has become mute, then one would think you have the time to go read a book to a child, help stock the shelves at the food bank, deliver food to an elderly person. Get off your computers and more importantly off your collective A##es and go do something.
This has been fun and all, but I have better things to do aside from enabling the thread to carry on.
SEW,
I have but two questions for you to answer to yourself.
Have you ever met a single person who has been arrested aside from someone put into the “drunk tank” or with a driving charge who went as far to blame society for all of it? Do you really think the world is as completely simple as you making it out to be?
caroline (six squared),
I’m under the impression that my writing isn’t quite on par with yours (5 grammar or punctuation mistakes in 7 sentences). It seems you might have reading comprehension problems as well. There’s a theme going on here.
For the record, I do not teach English. Nor do I tweet, drive a SUV, use spell check, or vote Republican. That has nothing to do with the location of the jail. Next time you pipe in with your two cents of cynical try to stick to the flow of the topic.
Did we learn something today about Church Hill like Stan Marsh would have, or are we still feeling Cartman-esque?
mr. underhill thank you for your well reasoned points. good luck communicating with the anonymous haters populating our neighborhood. to those of u who post under your own names……thank you for showing the courage of your convictions. as for as the self important cowards spouting your bargain brand racism,nobody has to give your arguments credibility because #1 u r too much of a gutless simp to takecredit for your pathetic, fearful views. who would listen to your fake outrage knowing that it comes from someone without the fortitude to sign their real name. we are ALL ENTITLED to our views. please have the strength of character to own repellent opinions or go and blog no more.. now say something nasty because it means nothing coming from a coward. buddycorbett
@39 I sure hope you don’t teach math, either.