I’ve been out of prison for three years, four months, and seven days now and still I regularly have nightmares of being back in prison.

     I’ve kept my nose clean, no drugs, no sex of any kind outside of my marriage, not more than about half a dozen drinks since I’ve been off of community custody supervision, and then never more than two at once.

     Yet, I keep having these dreams where I am back in prison, for reasons not apparent to me, and with no idea how long I will be.

     Last night I had another one of those except this time lawmakers had decided to retroactively take away good time (time off for good behavior) and put everyone who had been out with good time back in for the duration.

     I don’t think it would be constitutional to apply punishments retroactively but then the constitution seems to have little impact on our law makers these days.

     I have been released now for almost five years, it will be five years in a little over a month.  I rarely have prison nightmares anymore but I am concerned that close to a million children are victimized and the current justice system is focused on alleviating public fear and appealing to a community desire for collective revenge rather than preventing more victims, helping existing victims to heal, not only to survive but thrive, and helping the perpetrator to live a productive crime free life.