Would You Recommend Your Rapist be Paroled During the Pandemic?
Consider this: Would you recommend your rapist be paroled during the pandemic? Mary Ellen Hostetter, a local Charlottesville, Virginia author, recently received that profound and soul searching question from a Virginia Parole Board.
I invite you to imagine a time that is more than three decades ago. You, a lover of writing since early childhood, have recently graduated with undergraduate and graduate degrees in English. You have long searched for and just purchased your first home in Charlottesville, Virginia, a home you could presently afford. In hindsight, it may have been in a questionable neighborhood, but it was yours and you happily moved in.
Not many nights later you woke from sleep with a knife to your side. A husky voice said, “Don’t you dare make a sound or I’ll kill you.” A lengthy legal process ensued that resulted in Hostetter’s rapist’s conviction and receipt of a long incarceration sentence.
Thirty-seven years later, you go to your mailbox one afternoon. In a heart stopping moment, you discover a letter from the prison that incarcerates your rapist. His sentence will end in 2026. Mary Ellen Hostetter thought she had several years ahead of her before considering her rapist’s release. But, now, Covid is running rampant in prisons and prison officials seek to parole any and all prisoners for whom it is reasonable to do so. A stunning question awaits you. Would you recommend a parole for your rapist during the pandemic?
The question shocked Mary Alice Hostetter and she pondered how to arrive at an answer about such a traumatic event of so many decades ago.
In the end, she sought out her most reliable problem solving process, that of writing and measuring her thoughts and feelings about the question.
This story went live shortly afterward in the Huffington Post. To read this powerful and beautifully written story, go here. The article’s title? I Had To Decide Whether To Recommend My Rapist Be Paroled During The Pandemic.