Why this ridiculous obsession with prisoners?

What is this ridiculous obsession with prison and prisoners that so many of you seem to have in this country? These people are not heroes. They are not political prisoners. They are not celebrities. They are convicted criminals, convicted for a reason.

Sure, if you look hard enough, you can probably find some good things that some of them did in their lives. Fine. That does not erase why they are behind bars. They committed crimes and they owe a debt to society. Actually, let me make it more personal. They owe a debt to me, because directly or indirectly, society is worse off because of their actions.

Yet we spend months talking about prisoners as if the people locked up in Point Blanche are somehow the victims in all of this. What about the trail of actual victims some of them left behind? What about the people of St. Maarten who had to live with the consequences of their crimes?

Whether it was buying votes and helping to ensure idiotic representation in Parliament, weakening our democracy and producing absolutely nothing for the country, or inflating prices because somebody had to get their cut, making projects more expensive and costing the country millions, these were not harmless little mistakes. People benefited while St. Maarten paid the price. They are crooks. And they owe us a debt.

But instead, we have to sit around listening to endless discussions about boxing bags and other nonsense that the Minister of Justice actually has to preoccupy herself with answering. Give me a break.

Some MPs seem so completely devoid of anything meaningful to talk about that they have convinced themselves that constantly defending prisoners, including robbers, murderers and thieves, somehow earns them political points. And let us stop pretending we don't know what is going on. Many of them would not give two damns about conditions in prison if certain well-connected or politically familiar people were not sitting inside Point Blanche.

Suddenly everybody has discovered prison reform. Suddenly everybody is deeply concerned about what prisoners have, what they don't have, what they eat, where they exercise and whether they have a boxing bag.

Man, give me a break.

There are people in there for everything from shooting another human being dead to robbing this country blind. There are people behind bars because somebody's family member was killed. Somebody's supermarket was robbed. Somebody's money was embezzled. Somebody's daughter or young woman was violated. Those victims matter too. In fact, they should matter first.

I am not saying prisoners should be abused. I am not saying they should be denied basic human rights. The law sets standards for how people in custody should be treated, and those standards should be met. But there is a massive difference between ensuring humane treatment and carrying on as if convicted criminals are some persecuted class of heroes that the rest of us should feel sorry for every other week.

They are not heroes.

When they finish serving their sentences and come out, hey, throw as many parties as you want. Welcome them home. Give them another chance. Help them rebuild their lives if that is what you choose to do.

But while they are serving their sentences, stop acting as if incarceration happened to them by accident. In many cases, they dug that hole themselves.

They committed the crime. A court convicted them. Now they have a debt to pay.

And they should pull that heavy plow for as long as the law prescribes.

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