Thank you for challenging academic narratives-- and for making us all think. As the mother of an American inmate, I posit that 'solutions' from towers rarely solve our concerns on the street.
As for abolishing prisons... it depends. Thieves deserve prison for some quiet time of reflection. Serial killers, monsters, should be sent to Shemya in the Bering Sea and left there.
Kimball was a priest at St. John the Baptist Church and School here in Healdsburg, CA. St. John's sits kitty-corner from our house here in town.
Kimball and his fellow priests sexually molested the boys and girls in the elementary school at St. John's. They also stole $1 million or more from the parish.
Kimball got off on a technicality.
One sunny summer afternoon, my wife and I drove over the Mayacama Mountains to Calistoga. As we walked down the main street, I saw Kimball through a picture window. He was eating lunch at a table with two women.
Kimball met my gaze. Our eyes locked. I knew what he'd done, and he knew I knew.
Kimball had dead eyes like a shark's. I could see the hatred in them.
He eventually ended up in prison and died there.
So, yeah, there are monsters out there. They are all around us.
PS: The Mexican priest who helped steal the million bucks, ran away to Mexico and hasn't been seen since.
This meditation on justice cuts deep, exposing the gulf between America’s promise and its systemic failures. Your unflinching gaze at who gets mercy and who gets the boot doesn’t just indict—it implicates. The raw honesty here is a gut-punch reminder that true justice demands more than performative fairness. Keep speaking these hard truths.
Having spent many years in academia, I, too, had to learn the language. Later in life, when my child started writing for school, I made it clear to learn what her audience wanted, i.e., the language of academia. Fortunately, my student kept a personal journal and kept up the creative writing bit as well.
Jesus, what a goddamn horror show. This isn’t theory — this is blood and bone. The monsters aren’t metaphors, they wear shoes and pay taxes and smile like PTA dads. You can’t talk a butcher out of his knives with flowery academic horseshit. Sherman’s right — the campus crusaders want to sandpaper evil into sociology, but there are real bastards out there who’d carve up your kids and hum a song while doing it. Abolition? That works in cocktail arguments and chalkboard utopias, not when Grendel kicks your door in at 3 a.m.
Yes — the justice system is broken. Bent, rusted, and full of its own rot. It needs a remodel, sure... but abolishing prisons? That’s not renovation — that’s hiring a wrecking crew to smash the pipes while the water’s still running. You don’t invite the wolves to the table, you put them in a cage and bolt the fucking door. Justice isn’t perfect — it limps and drinks too much — but it sure as hell beats giving the monsters keys to the city.
Thank you for this commentary. I’ve seen monsters brought to Justice and some who might still have evaded Justice. The proof of that is the unsolved murder cases still on the books. They do exist. Be careful
Excellent essay , Sherman. Brought to mind the rarely seen Michael Moore doc Where To Invade Next, in which he explores Euro social programs , some hatched here in the US. He did a piece on Norwegian prison reform in the doc that was thought provoking, just like your essay. We need cops and justice, not they are necessarily linked... that said, I've crossed the paths of some crazy +scary mofos that I would not like to see roaming free.
It’s easy to win an argument when quoting or perhaps misquoting folks who can’t respond or explain their positions. Intellectually and rhetorically it’s an excellent way to prove one’s own correctness. It is however not truly a discussion. It just seems like one.
".... as I aspire daily to clearer thoughts and right speech"
- Yeah!!!! And I really hate to get "answers" to everything but not my question. When insisting, till they can´t get out, people will normaly get angry - about me, not about their inability to say: I don´t know...
If there were ever a way to take an online course from you I bet at least 1/2 of the 435 folks who have liked it would sign up. I know I would as I aspire daily to clearer thoughts and right speech.
Sherman, Your words gave me a lot to think about, especially with the world in such turmoil. The horrors of Gaza, the children and families around the world who have had their food and medicines cut off. The list of obscenities go on and on. Much of what I see and hear has made me ill so I have chosen to not watch TV or read the news. What I have chosen to do is pray for cooler heads and hearts to prevail, for sane people with good sense and power to be heard and listened to, and for division and rancor to subside and love of neighbor here and abroad fill the lives of the powerful as well as those less fortunate. I am too old to march, orate or organize. BUT, I can still pray for peace, and understanding. I can write letters and stuff envelopes. I have offered my abilities to the organization INDIVISABLE. Wish me luck!
Jan Myhre,
poet, mother, wife and fan/supporter of you!
PS As for the abolition of prisons, I say not until Drumph spends more time in court.
I will say that I felt 1000% safer before the current and last Governor of California emptied my state’s prisons and jails onto the streets and they were given carte blanche to raise hell in California because there were no longer consequences. Now, in the last year Gavin Newsom is trying to reverse course because he wants to run for President, but the damage is done between those decisions and compounded with declaring California a sanctuary state. These danged politicians, on both sides of the aisle, are so hell bent on buying votes that they have put their constituents in harm’s way. I’m so sick of politics. They all need a stiff boot to the backside.
Found it. The Russian serial killer was Andrei Chikatilo. There was even a movie made about him. They claimed there were 52 victims but probably many more.
Thank you for challenging academic narratives-- and for making us all think. As the mother of an American inmate, I posit that 'solutions' from towers rarely solve our concerns on the street.
As for abolishing prisons... it depends. Thieves deserve prison for some quiet time of reflection. Serial killers, monsters, should be sent to Shemya in the Bering Sea and left there.
Great essay! Oh, yeah, monsters are out there. I've seen 'em. Donald Kimball was one of them:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2006-sep-17-me-kimball17-story.html
Kimball was a priest at St. John the Baptist Church and School here in Healdsburg, CA. St. John's sits kitty-corner from our house here in town.
Kimball and his fellow priests sexually molested the boys and girls in the elementary school at St. John's. They also stole $1 million or more from the parish.
Kimball got off on a technicality.
One sunny summer afternoon, my wife and I drove over the Mayacama Mountains to Calistoga. As we walked down the main street, I saw Kimball through a picture window. He was eating lunch at a table with two women.
Kimball met my gaze. Our eyes locked. I knew what he'd done, and he knew I knew.
Kimball had dead eyes like a shark's. I could see the hatred in them.
He eventually ended up in prison and died there.
So, yeah, there are monsters out there. They are all around us.
PS: The Mexican priest who helped steal the million bucks, ran away to Mexico and hasn't been seen since.
This meditation on justice cuts deep, exposing the gulf between America’s promise and its systemic failures. Your unflinching gaze at who gets mercy and who gets the boot doesn’t just indict—it implicates. The raw honesty here is a gut-punch reminder that true justice demands more than performative fairness. Keep speaking these hard truths.
Having spent many years in academia, I, too, had to learn the language. Later in life, when my child started writing for school, I made it clear to learn what her audience wanted, i.e., the language of academia. Fortunately, my student kept a personal journal and kept up the creative writing bit as well.
Jesus, what a goddamn horror show. This isn’t theory — this is blood and bone. The monsters aren’t metaphors, they wear shoes and pay taxes and smile like PTA dads. You can’t talk a butcher out of his knives with flowery academic horseshit. Sherman’s right — the campus crusaders want to sandpaper evil into sociology, but there are real bastards out there who’d carve up your kids and hum a song while doing it. Abolition? That works in cocktail arguments and chalkboard utopias, not when Grendel kicks your door in at 3 a.m.
Yes — the justice system is broken. Bent, rusted, and full of its own rot. It needs a remodel, sure... but abolishing prisons? That’s not renovation — that’s hiring a wrecking crew to smash the pipes while the water’s still running. You don’t invite the wolves to the table, you put them in a cage and bolt the fucking door. Justice isn’t perfect — it limps and drinks too much — but it sure as hell beats giving the monsters keys to the city.
Thank you for this commentary. I’ve seen monsters brought to Justice and some who might still have evaded Justice. The proof of that is the unsolved murder cases still on the books. They do exist. Be careful
Excellent essay , Sherman. Brought to mind the rarely seen Michael Moore doc Where To Invade Next, in which he explores Euro social programs , some hatched here in the US. He did a piece on Norwegian prison reform in the doc that was thought provoking, just like your essay. We need cops and justice, not they are necessarily linked... that said, I've crossed the paths of some crazy +scary mofos that I would not like to see roaming free.
It’s easy to win an argument when quoting or perhaps misquoting folks who can’t respond or explain their positions. Intellectually and rhetorically it’s an excellent way to prove one’s own correctness. It is however not truly a discussion. It just seems like one.
That professor and student said things that have constantly been repeated by prison abolitionists.
Thank you very much for your thougts Sherman.
".... as I aspire daily to clearer thoughts and right speech"
- Yeah!!!! And I really hate to get "answers" to everything but not my question. When insisting, till they can´t get out, people will normaly get angry - about me, not about their inability to say: I don´t know...
If there were ever a way to take an online course from you I bet at least 1/2 of the 435 folks who have liked it would sign up. I know I would as I aspire daily to clearer thoughts and right speech.
Also fantastic book by forensic psychiatrist Gwen Adshead related to this topic: https://www.amazon.com/Devil-You-Know-Stories-Compassion/dp/1982134798
Sherman, Your words gave me a lot to think about, especially with the world in such turmoil. The horrors of Gaza, the children and families around the world who have had their food and medicines cut off. The list of obscenities go on and on. Much of what I see and hear has made me ill so I have chosen to not watch TV or read the news. What I have chosen to do is pray for cooler heads and hearts to prevail, for sane people with good sense and power to be heard and listened to, and for division and rancor to subside and love of neighbor here and abroad fill the lives of the powerful as well as those less fortunate. I am too old to march, orate or organize. BUT, I can still pray for peace, and understanding. I can write letters and stuff envelopes. I have offered my abilities to the organization INDIVISABLE. Wish me luck!
Jan Myhre,
poet, mother, wife and fan/supporter of you!
PS As for the abolition of prisons, I say not until Drumph spends more time in court.
I will say that I felt 1000% safer before the current and last Governor of California emptied my state’s prisons and jails onto the streets and they were given carte blanche to raise hell in California because there were no longer consequences. Now, in the last year Gavin Newsom is trying to reverse course because he wants to run for President, but the damage is done between those decisions and compounded with declaring California a sanctuary state. These danged politicians, on both sides of the aisle, are so hell bent on buying votes that they have put their constituents in harm’s way. I’m so sick of politics. They all need a stiff boot to the backside.
The pursuit for reelection creates multipartisan messes.
I gave this to my 38 year old daughter to read .....and watched
Giggles....smirks....more smikrks
smirks
Then. "OH gawd
Jesus christ..
Quiet
He's a really good writer
!!!!
Found it. The Russian serial killer was Andrei Chikatilo. There was even a movie made about him. They claimed there were 52 victims but probably many more.
I remember there's a terrifying photo of him, in a jail cell, as he glares at the camera.