We are not dealing with the great social issues of the day. Instead, we criminalize our failures and relegate the non-conformists to the jails and prisons of our nation. We dream that by criminalizing our failures the issues will somehow vanish. The end result is an exploding prison population with its own catastrophic consequences.

Part of the legacy we bequeath our children is likely to be a nation of razor wire, jails and prisons in which the rites of passage from childhood to adult life will include felony convictions, prison time, parole and probation.

Find it hard to believe? Take a drive with me. The point of this tour is to highlight the explosion in the prison population in the last 15 years and some the related consequences. Throughout the drive, bear in mind that what you see only represents a portion of what is going on in an eighty-mile radius of Gainesville.

From Gainesville, go south on interstate I-75 to exit 321 and follow the signs for about 8 miles till you arrive at FCC Coleman. This federal prison complex opened in 1995 and is designed to house about 7,000 men and women; it has a work camp, two prisons and two penitentiaries. Coleman is the largest prison complex in the USA.

Located in the medium security prison is an inmate named Veronza Bower who served a 30-year sentence with a mandatory release date of April 7, 2004. It appears the government cannot figure out when and if he should be released. The U.S. Federal Court in Ocala, Florida ordered a hearing by December 24, 2004 regarding Veronza Bowers, Jr. Writ of Habeas Corpus challenging his illegal detention and denial of a mandatory parole hearing by the U.S. Parole Commission.

We return to I-75, go north for 37 miles to exit 358 and east to the light at highway 25A. Turn left at 25A and go north for about 7 miles to the Florida Department of Correction complex at Marion.

Here we will find a county juvenile facility on the left, a road camp and a men’s prison on the right, and a little further north on the left is Lowell Correctional Institution (CI), a women’s prison.