Prison Journal: #3

“OUR TIME COUNTS”

NAMASTE’

Two months have passed with relative ease. Various activities keep most everyone busy, just long enough to forget where we are, well, at least for a little while. I have made a smooth transition into a new work schedule. I find it quite suitable and productive, seeing how I’m such a “short timer” actually; I’m a “no timer”. I’m going thru an abbreviated course of things they put everyone thru. What I mean is that when a person is 30 months to the door, they become eligible to participate in the I.R.P. and R.P.P. programs, the B.O.P. in notorious for its acronyms.

The first one stands for Individual Re-entry Program, and the second, the Release Preparation Program. This allows everyone to spend at least half of their work schedule going over things life halfway house rules, probation, and other assessments so that the transition into the real world won’t be so harsh. Since I only received only four months, they put me right into the programs. However, some of the material is not individualized and operates in more of a “cookie-cutter” fashion.

As part of these programs they offer some interesting seminars on things such as model railroading, crochet’, and ceramics as well as productive courses in finances, new business start up, typing, writing, and C.D.L. licensing. They even have a V.T. carpentry class! These programs are designed to reflect a pet project of the warden. He hopes to demonstrate the current trend to counteract the ideas of overlooking and dismissing rehabilitation as a primary function of the B.O.P.

This is an over-glorified version of inmates sharing their life skills with each other, for each other. The catch is, now, they have permission. It’s going to happen anyway, now, the B.O.P. takes the credit. However, the B.O.P. has yet to contribute a significant effort. They loosely monitor everyone, so it is a nice break.

What everyone does when they leave here is their own business, but they hope to reduce the rate of recidivism a little. They hope to accomplish this by providing the illusion of the B.O.P. actually doing something. The point is there are programs in place to make one’s time count here by attempting to improve oneself. How effective they are depends completely on the individual to work on their own goals.

Well, it’s better than sitting around angry and bitter while learning how to become a “better” criminal or simply getting caught up in the hustle, as if that doesn’t happen enough already.

Some still choose not to participate due to their ideas of pride and contempt, so they are at risk and more likely to return. The good news is that some actually go to college and really make a difference in their lives.

There have been three escapes while I’ve been here so far. The first two escaped a few weeks ago. They got caught 40 miles away in Wisconsin. The third was fairly recent. This guy had a visit and the officer on duty had been calling him for over two hours. Then they call everyone to return to their assigned areas for re-count. Before it was over, they drove around looking for this buy both inside and outside the fence.

We did not see anything and can only speculate, the cops don’t tell us much. So, we suspect that this guy’s visitor had a change of plans. Somehow they did not communicate very well. We suspect that the visitors were held for questioning. Good luck whoever you are!

Another guy got caught jumping the fence attempting to smuggle in contraband of some kind. That brought another recall. Being in a “camp”, I suppose, is too great a temptation. After being down for 10 years or more, I myself might take a chance as well. Who knows? It’s a gamble with another five years on top of the rest of one’s “bit” and that is after they take away any “good time”. The worst of it is that they will never see a camp again. At best, they will go into a low security, but we believe they might go straight into a med-high U.S.P. prison.

The overriding problem stems form inmates believing that it is only 18 months for escaping, or some other lesser degree of punishment. They talk about an old 72 hour absconceing law, while others speak with complete certainty that it no longer applies. The true culprit here is complacency. Someone got away with breaking the rules for so long they got careless.

“It’s three am. Do you know where your felon is?”

There have been 47 million Americans who have been incarcerated and have lost their right to vote. While 80% are minorities, who prior to conviction have subsisted around or below the poverty line. What’s wrong with this picture? What it tells me is that the feds don’t want poor criminals deciding how the laws that put them here in prison are changed.

To me it seems that it is continuing to promote an “Us vs. Them” mentality and reinforces separatism, where by removing a large percentage of the voting public that can actually change how the laws are written. The major concerns are removing the mandatory minimums for drug offences (which are mostly nonviolent). The mandatory minimums might get a person a 10 year sentence or more. The other is something that is referred to as the 65% law. This is when a prisoner completes 65% of their overall sentence and becomes eligible for consideration of release, which might translate into three to four years off a ten year bit.

I would hope to call for somebody to enact some form of voting reform. There are too may people that the laws effect that cannot do anything about their situation. It is a shining example of the tragedy of failed justice.

On the other side, there are a lot beautiful people here. I am amazed at the quality of folks that get caught up in this American karma. There are some really intelligent people that really don’t belong here at all. The diversity is truly remarkable. Yes, there are some petty drug dealers, car salesmen, doctors, an African prince, ex-ATF agents, and ex-IRS agents, CEOs, bankers, even bad cops and military officers. I won’t go into any details for the sake of anonymity. The point is there are big players here that somehow crossed the fine line serving their country or one’s bottom line.

All this knowledge, crammed together, one can’t help but learn from each other. Most tend to keep themselves nestled away into their own cliques and so on. For the most part we learn to tolerate everyone. Even so, anger and bitterness can blind a man into a colorful display of illusionary belief patterns.

God forbid that anyone would try to unionize the prisoners. That would be a danger to the need of maintaining control and it would compromise security. So, thankfully everyone is systematically fractionized and dept mentally isolated into self-serving needs and activities. Meeting only to talk about the movie they watched or what’s on today’s menu. The basketball games require a lot of devotion and energy to follow. If making change in our world commanded that much attention we would not be in this dire predicament.

Some, on the other hand, feel rescued instead of just being arrested. To them this is a way out. Being locked-up might have actually saved their lives or got them out of a really bad situation. This time provides a golden opportunity to finally get their GED and so on. Now they have the time to find their personal savior. They have time to read some educational books and improve their understanding of their world. Also, there are law books here for those who are trying to beat their case. However if life in prison is better than live on the street, something is terribly wrong.

But yeah, we know that. What can we do? Clamor on some cold marble steps in DC screaming quietly and at times not so politely, even begging outright for our so-called leaders to do something. They wrote the laws, now other people want to have them rewritten. What can we do? Thankfully, the S.O.A.W. is mobilizing to gather and spur on the path to nonviolent resistance, to cry out in one voice,

“No Mas! No War!”

Accountability vs loss;

how can we ensure the properly appointed personnel to police and govern themselves, when we as civilization are more concerned about trying to decide what to watch on TV? I have no such answers.

What I do have is the courage to ask questions and ask everyone I can how they might chose to help. Together we can choose how to apply one’s skills to achieve them. It is a shame to waste one’s time on self-loathing and contempt for the evil that occurs in our world.

However, this is the time of our lives. It is ours to do with as we will. It is up to the individual to determine their own course of direction. It is up to each of us to give one’s sentence some sense of productive meaning; or else it is just wasted.

Some of these guys here spent years walking around the track, watching TV, getting fat and angry. Others are hitting the gym, growing bigger, getting stronger because from their culture it is a thing to be valued to be stronger than the next guy, which in turn, inherently breeds violence.

So who is to say?

What is productive time or not? Only the heart can say what is right, and then learn how to live with the consequences. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and resources to feed the American beasts of apathy and distraction.

“Less is more… As it appears to me, the less poor citizens that can vote, the more greedy folk can keep it that way.” Such blatant disregard for its own people has shown how it has fooled its citizens and washed over other foreign countries to promote “American” interests… May the Truth Prevail now and Forever…

NO MAS NO WAR!

Until We Meet again...

Breathe love,
Be well,
Do Frolic Much,
Where The Truth Is Free,
Your Humble Servant Of Global Peace.
ozone
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