I have recently become friends with a former "outside the law" young man.  He became a Christian and for seven years has led an exemplary life.  I absolutely am in awe of his life.  He was beaten by his parents, bones broken and finally dumped on the streets--as a child.  He still has problems with his eyes where his scull was broken and his sight damaged.  By a bat.

He is the hardest worker I've ever seen.  Will do anything to support himself to keep from living on the streets.  When I need something done, he is the one I call first.  He wants to work.  He wants to support himself.  All of the moral characteristics that I tried to instill in my own children, he has watched, observed others do, made a choice and developed on his own.  

And I have learned about Oklahoma's, penal system and been shocked.  The things he has shared seem impossible.  When you are arrested, you are assumed guilty, put in jail for sometimes a year or two before your court date.  If you can't meet bond--which most can't--your fees accumulate. 

Every time they bring you before a judge, you are charged court costs.  That's how we fund our penal system.  On the backs of the arrested--whether they have been tried and found guilty, or are just sitting in jail rotting.  You have no job, no home, no money, no car to get a to a job and nobody will hire you.

Climbing out of the place that you exist seems impossible.  If you have child support, the government charges you interest on those payments so that when you get out, you are in worse shape than when you were locked up.  And after all that, the charges may be rolled over for six months, a year, while you pay new court costs.  And the world assumes you are guilty because you were arrested.  I can't help but ask, "What are we doing to these people?" God help them.