Ventae: MSDF must be closed

I live in Milwaukee. I was revoked three times without committing a crime and was warehoused in the criminal justice system and the penitentiary.

I’m a college student at MATC. I’m doing the Human Services Associate Degree to become an alcohol and drug abuse counselor.

It strikes me as interesting that I could go from being a college student to the penitentiary without committing a crime or breaking the law. They were able to take me in front of an administrative law judge and give me two years in prison and then turn around and give me 14 months in prison and then turn around and give me a year and eight months in prison and then turn around and give me a 45-day sanction. It has been an ongoing theme since 2008 where I’ve been in and out of the penitentiary but haven’t committed a crime since 1999: this strikes me as significant. If I’m not mistaken prison is a place for those who break the law, not for those who abide by the law, pay taxes and are upright citizens such as myself. I’m not saying that I’m perfect because I did commit a crime and I paid my debt to society. I feel like because I paid my debt to society I shouldn’t have to continue to be penalized from something that happened in 1999 due to the way that the system is rigged up for me to fail instead of for me to succeed.

I want to get the awareness out here that people are being revocated without committing crimes and these agents have more power than the judge. You could be put in prison just for a minor violation that is not against the law of the land.

It’s frustrating when you’re out here working a job, going to college, having a place to lay your head and helping your family out and then whenever they feel like it they snatch the rug from under your feet and they place you in prison even though you have not committed any crime. I think there should be a way for us to rehabilitate ourselves — some type of program that is really going to benefit society. I feel like society would be safer with the person being rehabilitated and being reintegrated back into the community.