In a small community like Juneau, Alaska, where you are on a first name basis with the Mayor (He's a folk dancer) and the Governor (hmmmmm. Not the current one- he's just a touch too right for me), and where there is a local correctional facility, some staff and inmates both are inevitably well known to us. I'm friends with four correctional people- three of them are very good musicians. None of them is a hardnosed guy although each of them has a clear-eyed view of the gazillion ways a person can go wrong and stay there. I do believe that each of these friends is still in there pitching, hoping to make a difference. In the meantime their first concern is to keep the community and the facility safe.

One of them put in his 20 years then retired and came back working in the Halfway House. Recently he has started teaching GED to inmates, so for the first time in 25 years he has a 9 to 5 job.

He is not a starry eyed idealist but his is a gentle soul and if I were to be on the other side of the fence he is the one I'd want as my go to guy.

He sings songs that none of the rest of us find, songs by Shel Silverstein, Steve Goodman, John Prine, Randy Newman, Jesse Winchester, you get the idea, songs that are funny, poignant, gritty, loving and wise in turn.

I will never look with a jaundiced eye upon people working in the correctional field. I wish them the best.