I’m starting this blog in response to the current
#BlackLivesMatter movement because it occurred to me that perhaps I could make
my point and tell my story without having to have debates with ignorant people
on Facebook and Twitter.
During the 2008 election I was addicted to MSNBC coverage,
being the liberal that I am. It was then
that I learned about a show called Lockup.
I watched that show religiously with morbid fascination. It’s a world I didn’t know and one that I
hoped I would never experience.
I had heard that there were websites where you could find
pen pals in prison and so that’s what I did.
I started writing inmates. Some
were smart, some were charming and some are probably completely beyond
redemption. I’m still in contact with
one and he will never be free. Most
people will see a convicted murderer, but I see a man who has so much love for
his daughter and has built an incredible relationship with her even from behind
the wall. I see a man with artistic
talent who is loyal. If he was let out,
I feel fairly confident that he’d go right back in. Why? Most
people will say because he’s a criminal.
I would say because he is a product of his environment. At his age, I am not entirely sure that this
dog can learn new tricks. Not when he
lived so little on the outside and has spent most of his life locked up.
During my early pen pal days I started interacting with
people on a forum for people who write inmates.
I learned a lot there. My eyes
were beginning to be opened to this world that I did not know. There was no TV show teaching me
anymore. I listened to the stories of
other people and what their pen pals were going through. I learned about the stigma that families face
when they have a loved one in prison. I
learned how the Correctional system tortures and dehumanizes the people of this
country and we do it very well. The good
old U S of A ranks NUMBER ONE in the world when it comes to incarcerating its
citizens. I learned how the criminal
justice sets people up to fail. There is
no rehabilitation anymore. Pockets of it
maybe, but this is not the true intent of the Department of Corrections (the
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
in some states). The true intent is to
punish and the system will punish you long after you leave prison. It removes your rights to vote and serve on a
jury. It removes access to public house,
college grants and public assistance in some states. It makes it difficult for you to get a job, puts
a target on your back so the police don’t have to look that hard to pull you
back in. The victims of this
Correctional Regime? Men of color, both
black and brown.
Why do we lock up so many of our citizens? As a form of social control. Michelle Alexander points out in her book
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness” that white
supremacy never really ended. It only
changed forms. From slavery to the Jim
Crow laws, African Americans have been oppressed. They have fought for their rights and made
some progress, but it hasn’t been enough.
The fight begins again now.
But mass incarceration is not just about social
control. It’s also big business. Our addiction to incarceration fuels the
economy. Small nowhere towns get to
employ hundreds of people at all the prisons we build. Private prisons make shareholders very happy
with profits. The states make money by
paying inmates 17 cents an hour to do work that raises millions for them. There are people PROFITING by keeping our
citizens behind bars. How can a justice
system be fair when people are financially invested in it? When corporations with big money can lobby
against criminal justice reform? When
unions fight against the closing of prisons?
What do I hope to achieve with this blog? In my wildest fantasies I teach someone like
me about some of the issues and they also join the movement. I don’t know that I can have that kind of
effect, but I suppose it is in the realm of possibility. At the very least, maybe, just maybe I can stop arguing with people on
Facebook.
