The Prison System is broken.
This blog contains some writings of mine that are prison related... some more than others!
More to come....
This blog contains some writings of mine that are prison related... some more than others!
More to come....
Is the system broken?
Posted 04-08-2008 at 05:07 AM by Ken
Is the system broken????
Is there justice in our prison system? Or The system that governs our prisons.
Outside of the prison walls, when you commit a crime and are caught, you are charged, brought before a judge and perhaps a jury of your peers, and a trial brings forth a decision on your guilt or innocence. Is this a perfect system? No - not by any means, but it is a system that serves our society well and it is by far the best justice system in the world today.
Now you have been sentenced to prison. You arrive at a prison and are presented with a new set of rules and a mini system of justice within the system that brought you there. Is this system perfect? No. Is it close to perfect? No. Is it a justice system that deserves any respect? In my opinion – no it does not.
Where did we go wrong? What happened after sentencing and incarceration that corrupted our system of justice? We bring an individual to serve a sentence in what the prison industry PR Gurus have called a ‘correctional system’. We lock these men and women up in a system of authority and in some cases abuse of authority. Authority does not automatically equal abuse, but the possibility is there.
Here is a very simple example of what I am talking about… A prisoner’s cell is subject to a routine search for contraband. During the search the prisoner’s pillow is ripped open by the Correctional Officer to determine if anything is hidden inside. No contraband is found in the prisoner’s cell or in the pillow. The prisoner is left to clean up his cell and also left with a ripped pillow. The prisoner over the next few months makes three direct requests for a new pillow since the stuffing is falling out of his ripped pillow – the pillow ripped by the Correctional Officer. There is no response to his repeated requests. Fed up with the stuffing falling out of his pillow the prisoner finds the means to sew up the pillow with a needle and thread that he pulled from an old T-shirt. Nine months from the last cell search, the Correctional Officers return for another routine cell search. This time, as with the last, no contraband was found. This time the Correctional Officer on inspection of the prisoners pillow notices that it has been ‘hand stitched’ and then proceeds to rip the pillow open expecting to find something hidden inside. Nothing was found. The Correctional Officer issues the prisoner a violation for ‘destruction of DOC property’. The prisoner requests a meeting with his case worker to review this violation and pleads that if they look in his file that they will find three requests for a new pillow after the last cell search. The prisoner knew that there was proof that the violation was not deserved. The case worker refused to review the prisoners file and stated that the violation stood because the Correctional Officer observed damage to DOC property - the prisoner was guilty based on the Correctional Officer’s observation.
Some will read this and say “So what?”. I read this and I am appalled that this abuse of authority can and does take place. This is a simple situation, this is not a serious violation and did not carry any ‘punishment’ to speak of but that is furthest from the point here. The prisoner is guilty based on the Correctional Officers statement. Proof exists to justify the damage to the pillow, yet the system will not even open the file to verify. The justice system is built inside the prison to support ONLY the statement of the Correctional Officer even if evidence exists to prove the Correctional Officer wrong. This may seem like a situation that most would just excuse as insignificant, but it is not. It is not insignificant because it only identifies that in more serious situations, a Correctional Officer may use his or her authority to make an allegation against a prisoner that is false and the system will support this allegation without question.
I have recently been personally involved in a situation with a prisoner where there was indeed a false allegation made against the prisoner and it was clear (although not proven) that the allegation was made out of a bigoted and discriminatory view held by the Correctional Officer. It was also further substantiated by a case worker that made a direct statement to the prisoner that the ‘violation was crap’ but that he had to find the prisoner guilty based on the statement made by the Correctional Officer. This violation, unlike the one above, was serious and carried a potentially significant and serious punishment. I will not go into more detail with this situation because it is not necessary to make the point. The point being that in certain situations Correctional Officers have the ability to abuse their authority and charge prisoners with violations that are false purely out of anger, retaliation, and/or personal intolerance for an individual or situation. I am by no means stating that all Correctional Officers will act like this – but I will state that most all Correctional Officers are aware of these potential abuses of authority and do not speak up and support the prisoner – they will support their own.
I think what concerns me the most is that until you are 'right inside' this system you have absolutely no idea how corrupt it really is. Three years ago, I lived my life completely ignorant to the corruption that exists in prisons today. I went to work and came home thinking that our system of justice kept me safe by dealing with criminals inside a well developed system of justice. This is not the case. Once inside the system of justice, the laws that we respect on the outside are gone. The justice that we expect on the outside is gone. Any Prisoner still has the right to truth and justice even when inside our prison system. What happens inside our prison system however is not based on truth and justice, but often pure abuse of authority that stems from racism, discrimination, and personal intolerances of the authority figure. How can you possibly expect any Prisoner to rehabilitate from a system of justice that in itself is corrupt and allows abuses of authority to take place?
I understand the need for throwing someone in prison and removing their rights. We must have law and order and there must be punishment for those that break the law - but not to the extent that the 'system' punishing these law breakers can now run in a corrupt manner with no responsibility to what is right and wrong, moral, or ethical. How can we then expect to return an individual to society that can function within the rules of what is right and good and accepted when the system that is responsible to punish them is corrupt and does not work in a trustworthy and just manner!
The prison system where we have housed these men and women has just succeeded in teaching prisoners to be unethical, discriminatory, how to circumvent rules, be subjective, and to expect to be abused, mistreated, and wrongly handled even when you do something that is right. What it boils down to is that it does not matter how good you are, the corrupt system will find a way to interfere with you and teach you to not respect the authority that is the very authority responsible for your rehabilitation and ‘correction’
The system is broken.
Is there justice in our prison system? Or The system that governs our prisons.
Outside of the prison walls, when you commit a crime and are caught, you are charged, brought before a judge and perhaps a jury of your peers, and a trial brings forth a decision on your guilt or innocence. Is this a perfect system? No - not by any means, but it is a system that serves our society well and it is by far the best justice system in the world today.
Now you have been sentenced to prison. You arrive at a prison and are presented with a new set of rules and a mini system of justice within the system that brought you there. Is this system perfect? No. Is it close to perfect? No. Is it a justice system that deserves any respect? In my opinion – no it does not.
Where did we go wrong? What happened after sentencing and incarceration that corrupted our system of justice? We bring an individual to serve a sentence in what the prison industry PR Gurus have called a ‘correctional system’. We lock these men and women up in a system of authority and in some cases abuse of authority. Authority does not automatically equal abuse, but the possibility is there.
Here is a very simple example of what I am talking about… A prisoner’s cell is subject to a routine search for contraband. During the search the prisoner’s pillow is ripped open by the Correctional Officer to determine if anything is hidden inside. No contraband is found in the prisoner’s cell or in the pillow. The prisoner is left to clean up his cell and also left with a ripped pillow. The prisoner over the next few months makes three direct requests for a new pillow since the stuffing is falling out of his ripped pillow – the pillow ripped by the Correctional Officer. There is no response to his repeated requests. Fed up with the stuffing falling out of his pillow the prisoner finds the means to sew up the pillow with a needle and thread that he pulled from an old T-shirt. Nine months from the last cell search, the Correctional Officers return for another routine cell search. This time, as with the last, no contraband was found. This time the Correctional Officer on inspection of the prisoners pillow notices that it has been ‘hand stitched’ and then proceeds to rip the pillow open expecting to find something hidden inside. Nothing was found. The Correctional Officer issues the prisoner a violation for ‘destruction of DOC property’. The prisoner requests a meeting with his case worker to review this violation and pleads that if they look in his file that they will find three requests for a new pillow after the last cell search. The prisoner knew that there was proof that the violation was not deserved. The case worker refused to review the prisoners file and stated that the violation stood because the Correctional Officer observed damage to DOC property - the prisoner was guilty based on the Correctional Officer’s observation.
Some will read this and say “So what?”. I read this and I am appalled that this abuse of authority can and does take place. This is a simple situation, this is not a serious violation and did not carry any ‘punishment’ to speak of but that is furthest from the point here. The prisoner is guilty based on the Correctional Officers statement. Proof exists to justify the damage to the pillow, yet the system will not even open the file to verify. The justice system is built inside the prison to support ONLY the statement of the Correctional Officer even if evidence exists to prove the Correctional Officer wrong. This may seem like a situation that most would just excuse as insignificant, but it is not. It is not insignificant because it only identifies that in more serious situations, a Correctional Officer may use his or her authority to make an allegation against a prisoner that is false and the system will support this allegation without question.
I have recently been personally involved in a situation with a prisoner where there was indeed a false allegation made against the prisoner and it was clear (although not proven) that the allegation was made out of a bigoted and discriminatory view held by the Correctional Officer. It was also further substantiated by a case worker that made a direct statement to the prisoner that the ‘violation was crap’ but that he had to find the prisoner guilty based on the statement made by the Correctional Officer. This violation, unlike the one above, was serious and carried a potentially significant and serious punishment. I will not go into more detail with this situation because it is not necessary to make the point. The point being that in certain situations Correctional Officers have the ability to abuse their authority and charge prisoners with violations that are false purely out of anger, retaliation, and/or personal intolerance for an individual or situation. I am by no means stating that all Correctional Officers will act like this – but I will state that most all Correctional Officers are aware of these potential abuses of authority and do not speak up and support the prisoner – they will support their own.
I think what concerns me the most is that until you are 'right inside' this system you have absolutely no idea how corrupt it really is. Three years ago, I lived my life completely ignorant to the corruption that exists in prisons today. I went to work and came home thinking that our system of justice kept me safe by dealing with criminals inside a well developed system of justice. This is not the case. Once inside the system of justice, the laws that we respect on the outside are gone. The justice that we expect on the outside is gone. Any Prisoner still has the right to truth and justice even when inside our prison system. What happens inside our prison system however is not based on truth and justice, but often pure abuse of authority that stems from racism, discrimination, and personal intolerances of the authority figure. How can you possibly expect any Prisoner to rehabilitate from a system of justice that in itself is corrupt and allows abuses of authority to take place?
I understand the need for throwing someone in prison and removing their rights. We must have law and order and there must be punishment for those that break the law - but not to the extent that the 'system' punishing these law breakers can now run in a corrupt manner with no responsibility to what is right and wrong, moral, or ethical. How can we then expect to return an individual to society that can function within the rules of what is right and good and accepted when the system that is responsible to punish them is corrupt and does not work in a trustworthy and just manner!
The prison system where we have housed these men and women has just succeeded in teaching prisoners to be unethical, discriminatory, how to circumvent rules, be subjective, and to expect to be abused, mistreated, and wrongly handled even when you do something that is right. What it boils down to is that it does not matter how good you are, the corrupt system will find a way to interfere with you and teach you to not respect the authority that is the very authority responsible for your rehabilitation and ‘correction’
The system is broken.
Total Comments 3
Comments
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I disagree with the beginning of your post, I believe our justice system as a whole is very broken, but the rest is outstanding and very true.Posted 04-18-2009 at 04:11 PM by Bfrq 
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I agree with you there are serious problems with our prison systems. Inmates are in prison to sever their time. Not to be abused and treated inhuman. Our inmates are humans also and they have feelings just like anyone else.
Posted 07-20-2009 at 10:58 PM by Dewaynes mon
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Hello Ken,
Crime, as such, has always been decades and charges ahead of an entity that could address it's components- the criminal, the law that deines him as such, and the consequences to that definition.
Criminals make a choice to be criminals. What I mean by this is anyone who chooses to commit a crime, aware of an arrest in the quake of that decision and tells themselves, " I know I'm guilty, but I have an explanation." Our judicial system has allowed us to "rate" the crime by things like severity, history, mental state, etc. This capacity to negotiate is also available to the criminal in his decision making process over the choice to commit a crime and possibly what kind. Now the lawlessness has adaptability.
The incarceration itself has only moved the criminal from one location to another and no matter how lengthy the trip to the facility, even under extradition, the criminal as not magically turned into somone else. The lawlessess of him is still present.
The environment throughout the proces of arrest and conviction is innundated with others who are lawless as well and the law in the presence of this flock of criminals is scant. The group of criminals are housed together, eat together, talk together. This continued criminal behavior is only corraled and kept in check physically by the lawmen who are entirely out numbered by the criminals. The underpinning and professional development of the criminality flourishes- bragging and bravado, gang activities, sex for favors, establishing alpha criminal rights, selling contraband, etc. Of course law enforcement is always trying to monitor these events as they eventually lead to the officers having to address an outbreak of the physical kind. Once again the lawmen are operating at a deficit because it is virtually impossible to actually monitor the criminal devlopment as it occurs in the conversations, street activities, tats, and familiarities of that ilk as it waltzes in through the front gate.
Now, we have succeeded in housing and amassing in numbers and emanating affect, a group of individuals whose sum is far greater than it's individuals and growing in presence and capability- not in just one prision, but as a force that continues to impose on society as a whole. Like military soldiers, law enforcement attempts to thwart the momentum by slowing, interrupting, and intervening on the developments of this swirling eddy of affliction.
"The prison system where we have housed these men and women has just succeeded in teaching prisoners to be unethical, discriminatory, how to circumvent rules, be subjective, and to expect to be abused, mistreated, and wrongly handled even when you do something that is right."
This is your quote- yes? I must humbly beg to differ. In this you have given the prison system far too much credit for creating the criminal in stead of just housing them. It was their own lack of ethics, descrimination, and capacity to circumvent rules that got them engaged in the first place.
The term I know is "jail" or "prison". The fact that some people fantasized about a point in the future that had not occurred yet, hence the term "rehabilition" and"correctional facility, doesn't mean that we have failed at meeting the requirement of the inappropriately applied label.
Ken, you are doing a great job. Prison, jail. Those are the correct terms. I really can't tell what a criminal is asking for when in court the only thing they are after is little or no jail time. Is that not tantamount to "Hey, let's all act like I didn't do what I've done?" I've been leading a life of crime for whatever reason and now I want things like a pillow, kosher or muslim meals, free phone calls, my kids to come and visit, sex behind a vending machine, sex with an officer or other people I might not ordinarily have sex with, my cell not raided, (which is actually equivalent to the same effects of an obtained search warrant of my residence!) etc.
The criminals has got to want someting dfferent. Until that happens, we can't just give them something different especially when out of one side of their mouths they want the law to treat them one way while they maintain the respect and notariety amongst their crimial peers. And when I say "give" I don't mean we operate in the opposing, attempting to keep something from them until they prove they oughtbto have it. "Give" as in something they never asked for in the first place. Wanting something because it is convenient is not the same as asking for help to correct a lifstyle to which he has become accustomed. In this kind of request the criminal is taking some kind of responsibility and ownership for who and what he is. In that he will also hopefully be willing to work on establishing himself as a poductive member of society instead of asking the penal system to hand it to him. After all, the title "criminal" was duly earned and sought after by none other than the criminal himself, therefor the onus to dissolve that title still, unforunately, belongs to him.Posted 11-02-2009 at 08:02 AM by NY On Your Case
