What did I just read? You make no mention of this man’s crimes or victim(s). If he was serving LWOP, it must have been considerable? I’ll need to know a little more about that before handing sympathy to the woman who helped release him back into the society where I live with my family. And there’s this blithe assumption that the reader is probably on board with LWOP abolition, which I would argue is a fringe belief. Whether or not a person has a “capacity for redemption” is asinine. They die in prison because they’ve done something so appalling that it takes away their right to freedom for the rest of their lives. In some cases, “I’m sorry” is NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Some crimes you pay for with your life.

You say:

“It pains me to admit that when my focus was on securing freedom for my brother, I had little to no awareness of the effect that our campaign had on victims’ families.”

Really?? Your pet cause is getting violent criminals in front of parole boards, and you had no awareness of what this would do to victim’s families when you helped release their rapists and murderers? You only consider this once a highly-manipulative psychopath hurt your feelings and humiliated you? Wake up!

You are hardly presenting a compelling argument for LWOP abolition when you include two paragraphs about how easy it is for psychopaths to slip through the cracks. And now apparently your raison d’etre has shifted from LWOP abolition to protecting people like you who were victims of known criminals. This is not the noble cause you think it is. He was already in prison which is where we put people to keep them away from law-abiding citizens. YOU went to HIM, and now you’re using your tremendous education to protect other people who put their hands in snake cages.

I get that you are eager for family. I encourage you to adopt a dog, join the Big Sister program. Stay out of the prisons! Please try another outlet before you release any more psychopaths on the rest of us.