Crime and Transformation

Though long, a fascinating study of a woman who transformed from a 60's radical in prison.

When I first started visiting Clark, I also wondered whether her transformation was a calculated effort to get out of prison. Over time I’ve come to see her differently. A dozen former inmates told me stories of how Clark helped them sort out their own troubles while they served time with her. Sheila Ryan, a former N.Y.P.D. investigator who spent 10 years at Bedford for killing the man she claimed raped her, told me that when she first met Clark in prison in the 1980s, she wanted nothing to do with her. “I thought, My God, you’re responsible for killing cops, and here you are laughing?” But she has changed her mind. “She is truly remorseful and sorry for what happened,” she said. As Elaine Lord, the former Bedford Hills superintendent told me, prisons should rehabilitate, not just warehouse. And Clark is a model for what’s possible in prison. “She is not the person who was involved in that crime,” Lord said. “She’s a different person. We have a right to be angry at them, but it doesn’t change anything. There has to be an end.”       

Not long ago, Clark spoke at a Bedford Hills event. Her theme was the Book of Jonah. Like Jonah, she told the audience, she had spent years in self-destructive behavior and had been cast overboard into a stormed-tossed sea for her actions. Like Jonah, she found rescue in the belly of the whale, in her case behind bars. “In prison,” she said, “I learned who I was.”

More than a few philosophical issues to mull in this real life story.

Comments

[Donald Mamula]

A few more articles on the subject:

David Horowitz says to keep her in prison. http://frontpagemag.com/2012/01/13/the-nyt-shilling-again-for-leftwing-murderers/

Ron Radosh is on the leniency side. http://pjmedia.com/ronradosh/2012/01/13/the-sad-story-of-judith-clark/?singlepage=true

All of which shows it's not an easy question, or answer.

[Peg]

Don - I had read both of these articles subsequent to posting this. Both men make some good points - and - indeed. The issues involved with this woman and these topics are not easy whatsoever.