Jon Fowler said, “Just because we’re incarcerated doesn’t mean we’re bad people.”
When Nelson Pettis, 37, Larry Bohn, 29, and Jon Fowler, 29, were sent to do community service on January, 30, cleaning up a park close to their minimum security prison in Yacolt, Washington, they expected it to be like any other day of work release. But according to People.com, “they had no idea how important that day’s community service would be.”
It was while they were finishing up that they heard screams coming from the creek that runs through the park. Three young boys had been canoeing on the cold creek and had capsized. The men saw the boys “struggling to keep their heads above water” in the 25-mph current. Pettis told KPTV, “It was raging pretty fast. They were really scared.” Bohn and Pettis told reporters they “didn’t think twice” about plunging into the water to save the children. They towed them to a small island and wrapped them in their shirts for warmth to wait for rescue crews. Bohn said, “They kept telling us, ‘Thank you, thank you.'”
The third man, Fowler, stayed on the shore to direct emergency crews to the children and assisted in blowing up an inflatable raft and retrieving the group. He told reporters later that although some may find what they did surprising, “We did what any good person would do. Just because we’re incarcerated doesn’t mean we’re bad people. We made some bad choices in our lives, but we’re still just like everybody else.” Authorities report that although all three of the men are incarcerated, they are all serving time for “non-violent crimes.”
All three of the boys were taken to the hospital and treated for mild hypothermia.
Do you think it’s surprising that people society deems “criminals” would turn out to be heroes?
All of us, whether incarcerated or not, have an innate goodness and a kind-heart disposition towards those who are in distress. I salute these inmates for being the heroes they are to the boys and for those who have been touch by their stories, I wished we will change the way we perceive people behind bars and I agree, it doesn’t mean they are incarcerated that they are bad people. Believe me, in the world we are in and especially in most Third World countries, even the innocent and the poor got incarcerated for the crime they have not done,… Read more »
‘bad people’ is what maximum security prisons are for.
Missy, I greatly disagree … maximum security or minimum security, they are where they are because they did bad things, not that they’re bad people. The prison system, no matter how they want to paint it, is by no means habilitate or rehabilitative but instead make some of them better criminals. Is that to say there aren’t bad people in prison? No but even some of the most dangerous, there is some degree of good in them. What you said here is what I see many of the kids I work with saying about themselves. Many of these kids have… Read more »
“Do you think it’s surprising that people society deems “criminals” would turn out to be heroes?” Eh, not really, minimal security prison is the kind of place people are sent for tax dodging, possessions of drugs and other shady-but-not-exactly-evil deeds.