Duane Waters Health Center (DHW) is a 112 inpatient bed medical facility operated by the MDOC. It provides acute medical, outpatient, and long-term care. It is adjacent to the Charles Egeler Reception and Guidance Center and is located at the site of the old walled prison in Jackson. Opened in 1986 DWH was named after Dr. Duane Leonard Waters who worked with the Michigan Corrections Commission for 25 years to modernize health care for Michigan prisoners. This information comes from the MDOC website and sounds well and good but like so much else doesn’t tell the whole story.
In the 1980’s a number of inmate lawsuits filed in federal court regarding prison conditions and medical care were combined into a class action. The state negotiated a settlement known as the Hadix consent decree which outlined specific goals for improvement of prisoner care. Despite repeated attempts by the MDOC to convince the court to end the consent decree it is still in force, providing oversight and monitoring progress made to improve conditions.
Over the course of the first 5 years I was in prison I made annual trips to DWH for eye exams, so I have some firsthand experience. There were a lot of stories about DWH circulating and from talking with the old timers it was clear that you didn’t want to end up there. I don’t know the statistics but a lot of inmates have died there over the years. One time when I was being processed into the facility and was standing across from the elevators waiting to have my leg irons removed I watched them wheel out a body bag on a stretcher. When that happened the dozen or so inmates I was with grew very quiet and still in respect for the dead.
While prison is a dangerous place and several inmates are killed by other inmates on an annual basis, for the 95% of inmates which will likely receive parole, the fear of dying in prison is more likely related to a medical issue such as a heart attack or cancer.
DWH lost its certification to perform surgery years ago. I heard horror stories of wrong limbs being amputated, post-operative infections, patient neglect, misdiagnosis, and excessive pain and suffering. The doctors and nurses no longer work for the MDOC but for a subcontracted medical service provider, a for profit company. But that hasn’t done anything to improve medical care. doctors that work in prisons have a reputation for being poor physicians that can no longer work with the general public. Not long after I arrived at my first prison the state police showed up to arrest the doctor. They found that he had been stealing prescription medications that were supposed to be distributed to inmates.
Decisions regarding treatment are made by case managers working for the medical service provider and will routinely deny requests for testing and treatments recommended by the physicians. The medical service provider has a national reputation for providing substandard care and has faced numerous lawsuits both by innates and the states that it contracts for.
Their philosophy seems to be to delay and if possible avoid making a diagnosis and when that doesn’t work delay treatment or seek to least costly treatment option regardless of success rate. Major medical procedures required by inmates including surgery and cancer treatments are now performed at public hospitals. In Jackson and Lansing there are enough inmates in the hospital that the MDOC maintains a prison ward. In addition, inmates are transported off site for doctor’s appointments and outpatient treatments. Inmate medical expenses are one of the highest cost centers due to the aging prison population. Yet getting medical treatment can be a major ordeal with delay, denial, and a very one-sided grievance process that puts the inmate at a significant disadvantage to fight the decisions made. Inmates pay a $5 copay for medical service appointments and are charged this even when no services are provided. For those without financial resources this is just another debt added to their bill that will follow them after they get out.
My level II bunkie was a lifer that had been down since the 1970’s. He had COPD due to emphysema from smoking his whole life. It was well managed using a national brand inhaler. The health care company decided to change his medication to a cheaper alternative over the objections of his doctor. The result was an almost immediate deterioration of his condition from fit enough to work in the chow hall wiping tables for $90 per month to wheel chair bound, oxygen dependent, and indigent. Quality of life is a major concern in prison since it doesn’t take much to destroy what little you have when a major change in health status occurs. The result of going cheap on his medication is that the overall cost of his health care increased significantly.
From talking with an inmate who was suing the doctors and nurses for pain and suffering in regards to a misdiagnosis for cancer, I learned that the ability to successfully prove malpractice is not easy. The lawyers provided for the doctor were so used to dealing with prison malpractice claims that when they asked the judge to dismiss the claim during a pretrial hearing they were caught off guard when the judge informed them that the doctor was being sued under different statutes and the case was going forward. Every now and then an inmate will win, but the cost to the doctors, the medical service provider and the state aren’t great enough to cause them to change their ways and improve inmate medica1 services.
I myself had personal experience with prison medical services. Due to a preexisting medical condition I was at a high risk for heart attack or stroke and classified as chronic care for additional monitoring. This meant I got a medica1 exam every six months instead of the annual checkup that was part of routine medical care. But when I developed an unrelated non-life-threatening condition, I did not receive the same level of care.
Due to poor food quality I developed hemorrhoids as a result of hard stool and difficult bowel movements. The hemorrhoid ointment for sale in the commissary wasn’t Preparation H and did nothing to treat the painful condition I was suffering from. I was literally reduced to tears from the fiery pain I experienced from bloody swollen hemorrhoids. My first trip to medical I received a small supply of Tuck’s pads that actually worked to provide temporary relief in treating my condition, but no further supplies were provided when those were used up. Medical wouldn’t address the underlying cause and I ended up having to purchase fiber laxative powder for $5 every two weeks for the next 7 years, along with hydrocortisone cream to reduce the swelling. If I hadn’t had the financial resources available to afford this I have been in a world of hurt.
My prison safe coffee cup. I kept it as a reminder of what I left behind and never want to return to.
One of the notable aspects of jail/prison is the removal of common items that could potentially be used as a weapon. Everyday items, creature comforts, or even basic hygiene supplies when they end up in the wrong hands can become dangerous. The higher the level of security the more items are restricted. For example, in quarantine which is in some ways like a level V, standard writing utensils have been replaced with less dangerous alternatives. Golf pencils instead of full size. Short stubby pens made from soft flexible material instead of hard plastic or metal. The idea being that they are too short to be fully griped in the hand and still penetrate deeply enough into flesh to cause significant injury.
The same approach was taken with tooth brushes. Full size tooth brushes made from plastic can be sharpened into a point. More over this has been across all levels. There does tend to be some inconsistencies. At one point while I was in prison travel tooth brushes were added to the commissary. The type where the handle doubles as a storage case. Less than a year later they were removed without explanation. If I had to guess one was used as a weapon. In an unusual move that was probably an oversight, an innate returning from county jail where he spent time while attending court was able to bring in as personal property a dozen long handled tooth brushes. He was able to sell them in the housing unit for two bags of coffee each, worth about $8 per tooth brush. For the guys that had the foresight to buy extra travel tooth brushes, these were going for a bag of coffee each. This just shows the value that some guys put on their teeth.
Razor blades have to be the all-time hair-raising security nightmare. The plain old disposable single blade type with a plastic handle that cut skin better than facial hair. In the county jail the razors were kept at the officer station and given out for use. The same technique was used in prison segregation. While I was in prison the MDOC removed razors from the population because of the number of incidents involving razor blades used as weapons. Instead inmates had to purchase battery powered electric shavers. As a concession the PBF bought razors for the indigent. A $1.50 razor was replaced with a $16 device that required AA batteries for an additional $3 per 4 pack. This is just another case were a few have ruined it for everyone.
When they took away the razor blades they also took away the pencil sharpeners for hobby craft that had a blade held in a plastic housing. Only the wall mounted rotary style was available in the housing unit. The classrooms had either those or electric pencil sharpeners. The unit sharpeners were generally so bad that they would eat an art pencil before ever giving a point sharp enough to draw with.
Scissors could only be children’s safety scissors. The type that you couldn’t hurt yourself with if you disregarded your mother’s admonition not to run with them. They could barely cut a sheet of paper, skin would be out of the question. Rulers could only be plastic; no wood or metal styles were permitted and no more than a foot long. Knitting needles were not allowed but crochet hooks were permitted. Paint brushes had to be short handled and thin bodied. Sewing needles were only sold as part of a small sewing repair kit and would break going through fabric let alone anything tougher like leather. Leather working as a hobby craft was eliminated with its stronger needles.
Wrist watches were allowed to only have basic day, date, time and stop watch functions. Count down timers were not allowed. The MDOC must have been afraid that MacGyver inspired inmates would make a bomb out of it or something. My first watch was a basic digital Casio with an Indiglow face. When that watch died I tried to order another but was denied. I had to settle for the same watch without the Indiglow face. The reason was that the catalog description for the two watches differed slightly, even though the only actual difference was the night light on the approved watch verses the Indiglow on the unapproved watch.
Legal pads and loose-leaf paper for writing but spiral bound notebooks or three ring binders were not allowed to be purchased because anything metal was contraband. I once purchased a foot-long florescent light so I could have adequate light to read in bed. A month after I purchased it a memo was issued requiring that the lamp be sent home or turned in. The catalog vendor had switched from the approved plastic body to a metal case. I still have it at home and use it in my garage workshop. Odds are after I moved to level I it would have been stolen.
Vaseline used to be sold in large containers with an easy opening lid. But when Vaseline and water are heated in a microwave it becomes a weapon when splashed in someone’s face. It is worse than plain boiling water because it sticks and causes greater damage.
Large mugs were removed from the commissary before I got there. Only 8 oz. coffee cups and 20 oz. plastic tumblers were available. The larger double walled mugs came with a plastic handle and a lid which kept the coffee warm longer. By limiting the volume of cups, it would thereby reduce the number and severity of incidents involving throwing liquids. The old mugs became a valuable commodity that would be resold over and over. Guys would have them painted in order to give them a unique appearance to reduce theft by making them one of a kind works of art. Floor wax sealer applied regularly would keep the paint protected.
Cleaning chemicals like bleach were supplied in a diluted form and even then, metering pumps were installed to dilute them further prior to use. It reduced waste when guys used chemicals for cleaning with the philosophy “if a little is good, more is better” in a vain attempt to kill more germs and kept chemicals that could cause harm if ingested or splashed in eyes from being readily available.
Tools from maintenance or vocational education must be accounted for at the end of every shift or class period. Contractors working in the facility must manifest in and out every tool. Many years ago, I worked as a contractor doing repairs in the ceiling above Cell block 7, the intake unit at the old walled prison and scalpels were part of my took kit. The COs had a cow about me needing to take them into the prison but there was no way to do my job without them. I had to account for them or I wasn’t going home.
Mirrors in the bathroom are made of either plastic or polished metal. No glass that could be smashed and the shards turned into weapons. Small plastic mirrors were available in the commissary and necessity since the bathroom mirrors were either oxidized or scratched so badly that they were practically unusable to use to see yourself shaving. Just before I came home one of the pole barns I lived in was being renovated and they put new mirrors in the bathrooms. I got to see myself clearly for the first time in years instead of the funhouse image I had to put up with previously.
Lawn mowers at the multi-level facility were the old fashion manual push mower because the higher levels weren’t allowed to have access to power mowers which could be used as a weapon apparently. At the level I only facility the yard crew had gas powered push mowers but maintenance had put a lock on the gas cap so the inmates could not steal the gas.
Except for the school the only calculators available have basic add, subtract, multiply, divide functions. The school has to supply a specific calculator for the GED program or they wouldn’t have them, again the MacGyver thing.
Typewriters that were available for purchase in the catalog came without memory because the legal beagles would use them to mass produce grievances. There were a few old ones around when I was in level II that had memory, so I’ve seen their power. I guess the MDOC believes that words can hurt.
In level II there were a lot of items that I saw that could no longer be purchased. Large ghetto blasters, TVs with internal speakers, black plastic headphones, and other items that were either held onto by the lifers or resold over and over again because they weren’t on people’s property cards and therefor would be confiscated if they tried to take it with them to another facility.
In the units with cells the MDOC had to install a fan as part of a settlement over the lack of air conditioning and heat related illness during the summer months. To keep from having to pay for replacement fans when those wore out the MDOC allowed inmates to purchase small personal fans from the catalog. The big ones did a good job moving air. I had one in my level IV and II cells. I had to purchase a personal fan when I got to level I. The problem was they were small and really didn’t move very much air to cool you off. Attempts to get a larger fan approved were denied because they said it posed a security threat. As if a bunch of hot and grumpy guys with short tempers wasn’t already a threat. It is amazing the devious uses guys with too much time on their hands, a temper, and who see little value in human life can come up with. Somebody once said to me that prison wouldn’t be such a bad place if it wasn’t for the people there.
One of the first things I noticed when I first went to jail and then prison was the odor. Not hospital antiseptic but of unwashed bodies and filth. In jail the water in the shower was ice cold and the lack of clean clothes to change in to meant that body odor stayed with you. In the higher security levels of prison, showers were only offered every other day while you could exercise every day. In the lower levels showers were accessible every day. This is where hygiene becomes the distinguishing characteristic and could make or break your relationship with your bunkie or cubemates.
Poor hygiene goes beyond access to showers. In a place where no one feels at home, many will make messes and simply walk away leaving them for others to take care of. Plugged toilets, hair trimmings in the sink, clogged shower drains, malfunctioning chemical urinals all contribute to making the bathrooms foul, disgusting, smelly places that don’t get cleaned nearly often enough.
An underlying issue is aging infrastructure. Many jails and prisons are more than 25 years old and some are more than 50 and in need of significant repairs and renovations. Coupled with prison populations that are double the original design specification there is significant pressure on sewage pipes. In one case these issues made the newspaper. Inmate maintenance crews were used to clean up raw sewage that had overflowed and one of the inmates on the cleanup crew contracted hepatitis due the lack of personal protective equipment.
At one of the prisons I was at there were problems with the drain pipes in the Level II chow hall backing up. Grease had plugged the pipes and overflowed all over the kitchen floor. The kitchen was closed for a day while the sewage pipes were snaked out and the kitchen cleaned thoroughly before food preparation could begin again.
Another time raw sewage was bubbling up out of the ground from a broken pipe coming from the Level IV housing unit. They had sewer problems there on a regular basis. To reduce pressure on the sewage system they installed controls on the toilets that prevented multiple flushes. In a unit where the toilet is in the two-man cells they used to do what was called a courtesy flush so that the smell of your waste would not be inflicted on your cell mate. With the controls in place limiting the number of flushes in a 5-minute period this practice could no longer be performed. In Level I the flush urinals were replaced with chemical urinals. These created a whole different set of headaches and after a couple of years they were removed, and low volume flush urinals were reinstalled.
In a place where the residence will purposely break or sabotage the facility, anything and everything will get flushed down the toilet. In the kitchenette there isn’t a garbage disposal so lots of food waste is poured down the drain. The result is a constant struggle by maintenance to keep the drains flowing, a losing proposition.
Example of front and back yards. The small white squares spaced around the track represent exercise stations.
At Level I and II general population facilities the great outdoors that is accessible to inmates is divided into the front and back yards. The front yard is the area in front of each housing unit and while the rules at each facility vary, the front yard is usually restricted to the residents of that unit. Like a front porch it contains benches and maybe picnic tables and phones. There may also be a basketball court. At times this area may be open while the backyard is closed.
The backyard is more like a park or playground. There will be baseball diamonds, soccer fields, horseshoe pits, a weight pit, benches, tables and exercise equipment. There will also be a walking path. The backyards vary greatly in size from facility to facility. Some were referred to as “the back 40” with plenty of room to spread out. Others were only a couple of acres, and there was no way to find space for a little peace and quiet.
The Prisoner Benefit Fund (PBF) at each facility pays from recreational facilities and equipment. The weight pits that I saw were unheated roofed pavilions with chain link fence walls, which could be wrapped in plastic during the winter months to keep out the elements. It was not your typical health club, just a limited number and variety of benches and racks of dumb bells and barbells. The weight pit is a very popular exercise destination. So much so that it must be signed up for through the Athletic Director’s office at many facilities. Further since it is a privilege it is often tied to a requirement that the inmate be ticket free for some period of time to be eligible for the weight pit call out.
Rain or shine, hot or cold, guys will be out there lifting iron. Inmates can purchase weight pit gloves through a catalog vendor. Some facilities will have weight lifting belts available, but that is about it. Guys take the weight pit seriously with workout routines and partners to push them and spot for them. Also, you need to have someone to watch your back, since some of the worst incidents of assault that I heard about occurred in the weight pit.
Team sports like softball, basketball, soccer, and volley ball will have organized leagues where competition will have a season and a playoff. At some facilities the champions may even receive some type of prize to go along with the bragging rights. Given the nature of inmates, the games could sometimes get a little rough and arguments could be fierce. The inmates would sometimes have to self-police in order to prevent a situation from getting out of hand and having the administration cancel to rest of the season.
The walking/running track generally circles the perimeter of the yard and along the track will be various workout stations. At some facilities this may only be a simple chin-up bar, at others there be more elaborate setup including spots for chin-ups, push-ups, sit-ups, stationary bikes, rowing, and other workout contraptions.
At the last facility I was at the workout equipment was really nice stuff like you would find at a city’s community center fitness trail. Made up of tubular steel set into concrete pads. The variety of equipment really provided for a full body isometric workout circuit as you went from station to station around the track. But I can guarantee that the designers of the equipment never thought about how inmates would find creative alternative ways of using the equipment to either work alternate muscle groups or increase the resistance to increase the workout intensity. This unfortunately had the side effect of increased breakage of equipment that should have otherwise been nearly indestructible.
Examples of the type of exercise equipment installed at the last Level I that I served time at. A different machine was located at each workout station around the track.
The work to install and repair this equipment is performed by the facility maintenance crew. This work is not considered critical and is performed by inmates working under the supervision of a maintenance staff member, who generally only performs work for the PBF on overtime. Again, another opportunity to take advantage of prisoners by charging the PBF overtime rates for the maintenance staff member while the inmates only receive their standard rate.
In good weather the yard looks and sounds a lot like a school playground. Groups congregate together to plot & scheme, shoot the breeze, brag about the past and dream about the future. The yard is where you go to catch up your acquaintances or accomplices from other housing units to exchange information and gossip. It is the one place where you can truly choose the mates you want to hang out with.
Cameras watch and COs circulate to keep an eye on activities, bust up overly large groups and conduct random body searches looking for weapons and contraband. The yard is a place where you need to keep your head on swivel. I’ve seen more than one guy get hit by a foul ball or a homerun that he didn’t see coming. It is not a good idea to accidentally walk up on somebody from behind when they stop abruptly while walking. The yard is where deals are made, goods trade hands, and favors exchanged. I’ve seen guys smoking marijuana, engaging in sex, fights, and stabbings. The yard is safest in the morning and nothing good happens after dark.
For the 8 years I was in prison I never saw the stars. The facilities are lit up like Times Square. All around the perimeter to illuminate the fences and the no-man’s land, both inside and out. The yards are so well lit that you can read a book outdoors after the sun sets. Too bad the night is the only darkness banished in prison.
When writing about prison and what life is like in prison it is difficult to convey in words to someone who has not experienced it what prison is really like. It is like trying to retell a funny story that happened and the person you are telling it to just gives you a blank stare and doesn’t laugh, so you finish by saying, “I guess you just had to be there.”
Richard Wurmbrand, founder of ‘Voice of the Martyrs’ was imprisoned by the Nazis and then the Communists in Romania. In his book “If Prison Walls Could Speak” he described the struggle to explain what prison is like to those who have never been there.
“I do not publish my experiences in prison, but the words in which these experiences are expressed. There is a big difference. On one hand there is your experience, and on the other hand a very poor attempt to put it into words developed by men whose experiences have been totally unlike yours.”
Prison is an experience like no other and for the vast majority of those unfortunate enough to have spent time there they do not possess the communication skills to even make the attempt. There is a very strong correlation between education and prison. Those who fail to graduate from high school are far more likely than someone who has a college degree to end up in prison. I unfortunately defied those odds and came to prison with both an undergraduate and graduate level college education plus twenty years of work experience as a technical professional including work as an auditor.
After spending a total of ten years in prison and on parole I can speak from experience with insight about what life was like serving time in the Michigan Department of Corrections. My earnest desire is to convey a sense of the scope and magnitude of the issues faced by those hidden from sight behind walls and fences. Those forgotten men and women who are often thought of as both a menace to and a burden on society, who endure hardship and abuse at the hands of those in authority over them and from their own fellow inmates.
As referred to by Richard Wurmbrand, the key issue is language itself. Not only the language used to relate prison experiences, but also the language used by those who are experiencing it. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, but I’m not sure this applies to the reality TV shows that try to depict what life is like behind bars is like by taking a camera crew into prisons or jails. As the narrator speaks the camera shows a bleak land scape of cinderblock walls, iron bars and reinforced glass, which is true. Prisons are very utilitarian structures meant to be both fire proof and escape proof, unfortunately they are not fool proof. And it is the foolish nature of the inmates and staff that is on display when the cameras are present.
The first thing the viewer notices is that the language used by everyone on camera is full of profanity that must be bleeped out. Cursing, swearing, vulgarity, obscenity or profanity, whatever you want to call it, it is the use of base, demeaning, degrading language that substitutes for civil discourse in prisons.
The punishment for using this type of language in an earlier era, when we were young children, was for our mothers to wash our mouths out with soap for using such filthy words. Now it is so commonplace that the animated TV series ‘South Park’ on Comedy Central, about a group of fourth grade boys, did a whole episode about the socially acceptable and unacceptable usage of the word S#*T. The acceptable usages involved swearing while the unacceptable usage involved its scatological meaning.
The explicative most commonly used in Michigan prisons is F#*k, the ‘F’ bomb. It is a word that is used as a noun, pronoun, adjective, verb and adverb, yet has no meaning of its own in the context in which it is used. It is simply a substitution for words that have actual meaning. The result is a conversation that is devoid of meaning unless the context is known.
According to Webster’s Dictionary the word ‘Ineffable’ (pronounced in-ef-a-ble) is an adjective that means- beyond expression, indescribable or unutterable. This would be something like trying to describe the glory of God in heaven, sitting on his throne. It is the frustrations and limitations of human language that the Apostle John experienced when he wrote the Book of Revelations.
In contrast to this is the common, base, vulgar cursing of man: “F’ing this” or “F’ing that.” Where we profane God and his creation in a way that is beyond belief, inarticulate, and unprintable. What I call “F’able” language is the lingua franca of prison.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian executed by the Nazis for his role in the failed attempt to assassinate Adolf Hitler, in his personal writings published in his ‘Letters and Papers from Prison’ commented on the coarseness of the language used in every day conversation between inmates and inmates and inmates and guards. Since his time, I can only imagine that the degradation of the language has only gotten worse. However, I shall attempt to translate for the reader so that the meaning is clear while still conveying the underlying tenor and veracity of the reality experienced by those I represent.
The language used to describe prison and the prison experience is what hinders understanding. In Genesis 11 in the account of the Tower of Babel the Lord says in verse 6, “Look, they are one people, and they have all one language; and this is only the beginning of what they will do; nothing they propose to do will be impossible for them. Come let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” The result was the project to build the tower ended and the people where scattered. Language became the barrier to unity of purpose because of misunderstanding. Now even though the English language is the national language we can’t understand each other because we aren’t one people. We are separated by more than experience and barbed wire, we are separated by attitudes, opinions, ignorance, and fear. Communication is the only way to overcome this situation and this blog is my humble attempt to contribute to better understanding in the hope that positive lasting change can be achieved to address a shameful aspect of our society.
In Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Indy faces a series of challenges he must solve in order to find the Holy Grail and save his friend’s life. The clue to overcoming one of the deadly obstacles was the “penitent man”. Looking around he saw a number of decapitated bodies and quickly surmised that he needed to humble himself in a hurry or share their fate. The same happens to people who come to prison.
Another synonym for prison is penitentiary. In 1787 the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons developed a prison system where they believed some criminals could be reformed through hard work and meditation. Many members of the society were Quakers, who considered the moral/religious aspect of meditation a key to reformation. They knew that the repentance that comes from the realization of the wrong one has done will lead to lasting change.
People who commit crimes by and large are selfish people who have placed their wants and desires above the needs of others. Many are proud and unashamed of what they have done. When you fill up a prison full of these people, sparks will fly. When two proud people clash there can be only one winner. Like the decapitated bodies in Indiana Jones, heads will roll, unless one of these proud men will humble them self.
Humility comes as the result of awareness regarding one’s selfish, prideful condition and the willingness to admit that this form of behavior is what brought the person to prison. However, some in prison will double down and try to make themselves into the biggest, baddest, toughest, meanest, orneriest, foulest, strongest, most ruthless SOB in the Big House. They lift weights compulsively to strengthen their bodies, they harden their hearts until all empathy for others is gone, and they live only to satisfy their lusts for food, sex, and drugs. They think the way to live is to die to what separates us from the animals, and in the process become animals.
When a person in prison learns to humble them self, they become more sensitive to those around them, which allows them to react quickly, like Indy, to duck out of the way when the violence starts. A humble person has a quiet spirit which allows them to put others before themselves even when they know of the other’s selfish intentions, thereby avoiding the wrath of the proud. We are talking about meekness here, which some confuse for weakness. Meekness is the combination of the character traits of patience and humility. Not exactly something that one would expect from inmates.
So how does one learn humility in prison? The Quakers coming from a Judeo-Christian world view would not have seen meditation as an Eastern Zen Buddhist self-contemplation practice, but rather as a Biblical contemplation practice. They would not expect a person to change on their own, but by the conviction of the Holy Spirit, not by self-revelation, but by illumination of the moral standard revealed in God’s Holy Scriptures. Humility is both the inward and outward manifestation of the change in a person’s world view when they acknowledge God the Father and Jesus Christ His Son for who they are.
James 4:6-10 says, “But He gives more grace. Therefore, He says; God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord; and He will lift you up.”
Prison is a place of stark contrasts and nothing exemplifies this concept better than the contrast between the proud and the humble. The proud are arrogant and unteachable. They will not learn the lessons of correction and if they ever get out of prison will keep coming back, doing life on the installment plan. Those who are humbled are teachable, they will learn the lessons of correction, and when they get out of prison will never come back.
While the original model of a penitentiary failed for a number of reasons, the concept of active participation by faith-based ministries remains a vital and necessary part of the correction system. Rehabilitation cannot be accomplished by a person in isolation, but rather only in the context of Christian community, both in prison and out.
Organizations such as the Salvation Army and Prison Fellowship are well known by the general public for providing social and moral training for those incarcerated. But there are in the U.S. literally hundreds of faith-based ministries dedicated to bringing the gospel into prison. On any given day of the week there are thousands of paid and volunteer workers in prisons and jails across the country, meeting with hundreds of thousands of men and women. From full church services to Bible studies to social/moral education these groups work with prison/jail chaplains to provide resources, programming and counseling that makes rehabilitation possible. No other religion provides this much capital and man power to assist the state in reforming the lives of so many that society has already written off.
Studies have shown that without programming recidivism rates can exceed 75%. With programming provided by the state such as educational, vocational, or psychological, recidivism rates drop to 50%. Faith-based programs reduce recidivism to less than 35%. When combined with additional programs and resources on the outside for when an individual is released from incarceration recidivism rates drop even further. One study even suggested that the first 72 hours out of prison are the key to success. If there is a person/organization there to provide mentoring and assistance and get the individual involved in a church, the recidivism rate falls to less than 10% in some studies.
Over the last two hundred years there have been numerous attempts at prison reform. In each case there was an acknowledgment that the current system was broken and that changes needed to be made. However, each one failed to live up to the expectations and did not result in accomplishment of the stated goals.
In each case the failures could be directly related to three causes: inadequate funding, over-crowding, and poor staff training. Prisons are expensive to operate and since they generate little revenue are a continuing drag on government budgets. Human societies for all of recorded history have failed due to the inability to pay the full cost of maintaining the society, whether it be defense, infrastructure, or social programs. At some point the costs exceed the economic strength of that society.
In the U.S., political parties and their candidates campaign on the ideas of lower taxes and being tough on crime. The two concepts are mutually exclusive, you can’t do both. Being tough on crime means more police, more prosecutors, and longer sentences which translates into significant cost increases. Lowering taxes means that the revenue to pay for government programs becomes scarce, which leads to reductions in services since the elimination of programs can be political suicide.
In corrections this means that every year prisons must do more with less. Costs for food, clothing, services, facilities, and staffing increase. And yet as incarceration rates increase, budgets have been held constant or even reduced. Even the best, most successful rehabilitation programs will be affected by this and will ultimately fail. The result is that prisons and jails become nothing more than warehouses or cattle pens where humans are contained until they must be released to once again wreak havoc on society. The worst possible outcome with the lowest return on investment.
Since the evidence of rehabilitation is incontrovertible and human lives matter, what are we as a society willing to pay to see our sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, husbands, and wives returned to us in a condition where they no longer pose a threat to society or themselves? What are we willing to spend to end the cycle of poverty, violence, and broken homes that results from locking people up? What does it say about a society that claims to be a beacon of freedom and hope, yet incarcerates more people than any other country on earth? When is enough, enough?
There must be more to corrections than retribution. An eye for an eye was Old Covenant philosophy. At least some portion of the church understands that we are now under the New Covenant and that forgiveness and redemption are the philosophy to live by. There should always be repercussions for violating the laws that hold our society together but hate the sin not the sinner. We have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Faith-based prison ministries get this and that is why we need more of them participating in the correction system. These organizations raise their own money from their supporters to fund their prison ministries. This is like free money to the fiscally strapped prisons. In the day and age where outsourcing services is seen as cost effective, what could be more cost effective than free? Sure, there needs to be coordination and oversight and that is where the chaplain comes in. But why turn down programs that have a positive effect on the prison environment and can significantly reduce recidivism?
Moreover, since it is that critical time immediately upon release from prison that is the major decider on whether or not a person will go straight or fall back into a life of crime, the MDOC should be actively recruiting organizations to provide after care, housing, employment/job placement services in addition to mentoring and counseling services. The vast majority of people coming out of prison have lost everything while they’ve been away and most have nowhere to come home to. The state needs to take more responsibility to help these people that they were so zealous to lock up in the first place.
There was a program called the Michigan Prisoner Reentry Initiative (MPRI) whose original goal was to partner with non-profit organizations to help fund and coordinate these types of programs. Yet after only two years the external portion of the MPRI program was cancelled and the funding redirected back into the MDOC, due to claims of misappropriation of funds and mismanagement by these outside groups. Given the history of the MDOC there is more than a little irony in that allegation. There should be considerations made to revisit this decision and encourage more faith-based organizations to come to the aide of these returning citizens.
Given human nature, not everyone can or even wants to be rehabilitated, but that is a minority of the people in prison. A sad but true fact is that those serving life sentences, after a period of adjustment are the best-behaved inmates. Those doing short determinate sentences, such as two years for a gun are almost completely unmanageable. Which takes us right back to my original point about the Penitent Man: those who are willing to humble themselves can be rehabilitated. It is up to the people in society to demand more from their representatives in the legislature and the legislature to demand more from the MDOC and the MDOC to demand more of its staff, contractors and inmates.
The term used for new inmates is “fish.” The length of time one is considered a fish varies. It depends on the individual and how quickly they integrate into prison culture. It also depends to a great extent on who is passing judgement. An old timer doing life might judge another’s level of integration harsher than someone doing two or five years.
It used to be really easy to pick out the fish because of the number on the back of their uniform. A few years ago, the Quartermaster stopped painting numbers on the backs of shirts and pant legs as a cost saving move. Uniform pants, shirts, coats, and athletic shorts are reissued over and over. By not painting numbers they also don’t have to cover them up.
In the eight years I was in prison the ID number count went up 200,000 numbers and was about to exceed 1,000,000. Each number represents a new felon being enrolled in the MDOC system, even those who don’t actually serve time in prison. My lifer level II bunkie had a 200,000 number from the late 1970s and a friend who came to prison around the year 2000 had a mid-600,000 number. Clearly the number assignment is accelerating. Lots of fish.
A saying about those who hadn’t served a year in prison yet is that “they’re still sh*#ing Burger King.” A reference to the amount of time it takes to completely flush meat from the colon. Not a pleasant thought but I heard it over and over. Another case of the philosophy, “If you say something often enough it must be true.”
Now there is a steep learning curve for those coming to prison for the first time. Prison isn’t like the free world and it takes longer for some to figure that out. The basic principle of prison is that someone else makes all the major decisions for you. This concept if very difficult for control freaks to grasp. The rules of the MDOC are printed in black and white in the form of a Prisoner Handbook. While this establishes the expectations of the administration there isn’t a guide for how to interact with other inmates in reality.
When a person first comes to prison they literally arrive with just the clothes on their back and then those are taken away. They gave me a tooth brush and a tiny tube of toothpaste that wouldn’t last a week. I had to write a kite to the Chaplin to get a Bible. If I hadn’t arrived with a check from the county jail for deposit into my inmate trust account I would have been unable to go to the commissary for weeks. Fish have nothing, no personal clothing like sweats or athletic shoes, no radio, MP3 player or TV, no food or coffee. The Protestant church in prisons that I was incarcerated in had a “love box” where inmates could donate hygiene items like toothpaste, deodorant, or soap specifically to help the new arrivals and the indigent.
Besides having nothing, fish don’t know the rhyme or rhythm of prison. Where and when to go for callouts. What time is count. They have a lot of work to do to establish a daily routine. Routine is the key to making your time in prison both productive and pass quicker. It takes time to get a job or school assignment. Depending on your classification and the waiting list it could be weeks to months or even years before you are called.
I was a tutor and it took about a year both times I was on the waiting list. To be a unit porter I started work in less than a month. The lower qualification jobs have a higher turnover rate. Both because of the transient nature of prison and guys being terminated for various reasons.
Fish make mistakes. Either they are too zealous to make a name for themselves by resisting authority or they are too eager to please. There is a lot to learn trying to fit in. There is an uneasy path between cooperation, capitulation and defiance to either the jailers or the inmates
Determining who you can trust and who you need to keep an eye on is an important lesson. It can be very expensive when you chose poorly. Personal agendas, gang affiliation and debts can affect a person and make them act in unpredictable ways. I had several bunkies steal from me to pay their debts. They were fairly normal and we got along fine but under pressure their behavior changed and they did something I could not anticipate.
You need to have a healthy paranoia, develop a sixth sense of danger to keep you out of trouble. Fish are thrown into a sink or swim situation and find themselves in over their heads, which is ironic. They need to learn to feel the energy in the room and sense the mood of the crowd. Being new they haven’t had the chance to tap into the gossip network to find out who’s who and what’s what.
What a fish needs is a mentor. Someone who is willing to take the time to educate them. I was fortunate to have a couple of bunkies that helped me through the process. They introduced me to others that I could hang out with. Being able to surround yourself with people you can get along with is very important. There is safety in numbers and it really helps with the loneliness and isolation of being in prison.
Prison is the one place where the question, “What is wrong with you?” should be asked sincerely and with the intent of receiving an answer rather than an exclamation of exasperation. From my experience, prison is short on introspection and long on intransigence.
Prisoners are crowded together so tightly that the background noise of daily living is loud enough that you can’t hear yourself think. Low expectations of how you serve your time result in high recidivism rates. I read that the goal of the MDOC is to reduce free time to 5%, which is a far cry from the current reality of 95%. A porter detail to clean in the housing unit may be listed for 8 hours, but only 15 minutes of work may be performed and that only by a conscientious worker. GED students may be expected to attend class for 1½ hours, 5 days a week, but except for a very few, don’t count on any textbooks being opened or any learning occurring.
For the vast majority of inmates, prison is like school recess all day instead of classroom instruction. Gym callouts, weight pit, yard time for softball, basketball, volleyball, horseshoes, handball, floor hockey and soccer; television and poker tables in the housing units. Few are those who can read and even fewer still practice the art.
Programs that once lasted six months are now completed in six weeks, because the graduation rates were too low. Lowered expectations have resulted in lower achievement. Inmates are smart, they will keep doing anything they can get away with and avoid doing anything they are told they have to do for as long as they can, and then only do a halfhearted job. If they put as much effort into their work as they put into trying to get out of working, they might actually accomplish something.
For many in the GED program it is simply a matter of outlasting the government’s law that they go to school in prison. They may spend years or even decades in school and not make any progress in getting an education, because they know that getting a parole is not contingent upon getting their GED. I’d bet that they would find the motivation to study and earn their GED if their parole depended upon it.
Many people in prison are “happy” with the way they are. They don’t see the need to change and so they don’t. As a result, they leave prison much the same as when they came in. Prison should be about providing alternatives and creating the conditions under which constructive change can occur. Maintaining the status quo is neither cost effective or socially responsible. Somethings got to change. Coming back to prison should be considered a failure of the system, not just the individual, and certainly not the norm.
Mitch Album once wrote a book about people he would like to meet in heaven. Here are some of the types of people I’ve met in prison. You may have met some or all of them on the streets because they are no different except for the circumstances.
The first person is almost a stereotypical persona, the Jail House Lawyer. Now everyone who has ever encountered the criminal justice system may want to see either their defense attorney or the Prosecutor behind bars, but I’m not talking about professional lawyers. The Jail House Lawyer has no formal education in the law. They have learned their craft by working on their own appeals. They spend long hours in the prison law library researching legal precedence. Dedicated to winning their freedom they will go to almost any length to exploit any perceived loophole in the law.
Jail House Lawyers are a close-knit group and pass around any trick that seems to work, such as specific case law, particularly effective verbiage or legal reasoning. They also trade what few law books and legal writer’s guides that are owned personally. However, by and large they must rely on the incomplete, outdated, and difficult to use law library resources as they duel with the prosecutors and Attorney General.
Many of these Jail House Lawyers have gone into business for themselves by selling their services to other inmates. They are confident that your case has merit and would be glad to pursue your case for you for a fee. Many inmates are indigent or nearly so with families that are unable to afford professional legal services. To these the Jail House Lawyers may be the only alternative. With the low education and IQ level of many inmates, conducting their own legal defense is beyond their ability.
Typically, the Jail House Lawyer will require you to pay up front by having your people put money in his trust account. They don’t work for Zum-Zum’s and Wam-Wam’s. In prison there is no guarantee that you will be in the same housing unit let alone facility from one day to the next, so there is a great risk in using their services.
There is also a matter of trust. You must bare your criminal soul to another inmate. You must give them access to your legal documents and hope they don’t end up hanging from the fences for everyone to see.
Wherever there are lawyers there are politicians, and in prison these are called Block Representatives. Each housing Unit elects a “White” and “Non-White” Block Rep to serve a six- month term on the Warden’s Forum. The Warden’s Forum is a mechanism by which inmates may have some limited input into prison life.
The Warden’s Forum is comprised of various subcommittees which meet to discuss issues such as chow hall food, commissary, Prisoner Benefit Fund fundraisers, and health care. A representative staff member is appointed to meet with the subcommittee to respond to the issues presented. The Warden then responds to the items that are reported out of each subcommittee.
What looks good on paper may not function so well in reality. Wardens tend to be autocratic and many items of business that would appear to be legitimate are denied on specious grounds. The Warden’s favorite word is ‘No’ citing security, policy, or perniciousness. From the inmate’s perspective when the Warden says ‘No’ it is because the Block Rep didn’t do his job. He didn’t explain or defend their position properly. There are neither Republicans or Democrats in prison only Libertarians. There is always someone who thinks he can do a better job than the Block Rep currently in office.
Voting for Block Rep is often a popularity contest, and what they say about politicians in the real world is also true in prison: “Those most qualified for the job are too smart to run for office.” The reality of the situation is that those Block Reps that raise the most fuss or fight the biggest battles are frequently branded as trouble makers by the administration and rode off the compound. Being a Block Rep can be a thankless job that only earns you a certificate of participation for your file.
Another person I’ve met in prison is the Rap Star. They provide their own soundtrack wherever they go. With or without accompaniment they are continuously rapping lyrics out loud. Sometimes it is a whole song, sometimes just a phrase. They may be living in their own little world, but they like to share it with everyone.
Don’t get me wrong, some of these Rap Stars could be legitimate musicians, with incredibly gifted voices, and possess musical talent and the soul of a poet. It is unfortunate that the majority of these wanna be rap stars do not. One detractor of the Rap Star put it this way: “I’m not going to know what to do in the bathroom when I get home because there won’t be someone in the next stall rapping.”
Someone who is frequently found in association with the Rap Star is the Foley Artist. The Foley Artist provides the beat by banging on any surface that resonates, such as table tops and desks. They also provide the laugh track to any conversation. They laugh out loud just like a studio audience. Boisterous at all times they do not have an indoor voice and can be heard clearly across a crowded room or the yard.
Foley Artists can also be crude and obscene in their language, making catcalls after females either live or on TV. They are marked by a distinct lack of social grace, having been raised on the streets. Roused by sex and violence, in large numbers they become a mob.
Someone else I’ve met in prison is the Hustler. Their goal is to become a millionaire. They have no starting capital, no outside support, and no formal education. Some Hustlers have long term plans and identify under-served markets which they can exploit. Others are just chasing a dream hoping that whatever they do will make money.
In prison, most Hustlers are involved in illicit activity. Morals are distinctly lacking in those seeking easy money. They work hard to avoid working a regular job. Hustles may involve stolen food from the chow hall. Black market goods are big business and generally involve organized groups rather than individuals to move large quantities of goods including: sugar, orange juice, meat, cheese, peanut butter, drink mix, onions, peppers and spices. Lax security and staff willing to turn a blind eye make it possible. Just about anything from the chow hall is available for sale on the yard, except for potatoes which nobody wants.
Bulk quantities are broken down for sale in smaller amounts such as kool-aid shots, or what can be quickly consumed. For items such as sugar and orange juice the bulk quantities are necessary to create ‘spud juice.’ Spud juice is prison alcohol and contrary to its name rarely contains potatoes.
Pricing is directly related to the risk factor. Items like drink mix and peanut butter have equivalent items on the commissary list and by repackaging can be held safely, therefor the cost will be relatively low. Items like sugar and orange juice are converted into a high demand high risk product that requires time to produce and carries a significant penalty if caught in your possession, therefor the cost will be higher.
Other hustles may be of a legal or quasi-legal nature such as selling coffee shots or cutting hair. Coffee is a must have for many inmates and when your supply runs out you look for someone selling coffee shots. Coffee is an item available on the commissary, so the coffee hustler must purchase his supply and turns a profit by selling it one cup at a time for more than the bag cost to purchase.
While there is a barbershop on the compound, many inmates prefer to use a freelance barber or hair braider. This entrepreneur uses their talent to make money by providing a service. Generally, a decent haircut in the barbershop you are going to have to pay the barber anyway, so the quasi-legal practice of cutting hair in the unit or on the yard is widely practiced, even if it is against policy and depending on the facility may or may not be enforced.
In prison many people undergo some form of religious conversion. Jail house religion is a hot topic for debate. While it may be a life changing experience for some, for others it may only be a cultural experience that is quickly forgotten when they go home. One thing is for certain, on every compound you will run across a Preacher. I’m not referring to the chaplain or an inmate who is an ordained minister. I’m referring to a religious zealot. Someone who loudly proclaims their beliefs. Preachers can be Protestant, Catholic, Muslim, Moorish Science, or Nation of Islam. They hold firmly to their religious beliefs and will debate any and all comers.
Preachers may or may not be active in the leadership or body of their religious affiliation. Sometimes their beliefs have brought them into conflict with other believers and they may be ostracized from the group. They are unique individuals clearly identified by their manor of speech and willingness to speak boldly about their faith.
The Bible says that no man can judge the heart, only God can, so I can say nothing about their motivation. Many speak of going into ministry when they get out, even when they have a history of being in and out of prison repeatedly. Some are thought of as hypocrites because their words and lifestyle don’t align or because of their criminal conviction. Prison Preachers are not well thought of by the general population and are often singled out for abuse. While earnest in their attempts at proselytizing they can do more harm than good on behalf or representing their religion.
Someone else I’ve net in prison is the Graphic Artist. This person was probably a graffiti artist on the streets and generally has some true artistic talent. Their skills are generally expressed in one of three ways, they are either into tattoos, painting, or greeting cards.
Those Graphic Artists that want to pursue tattooing in prison are taking up a high risk, high reward occupation. To be caught tattooing is a major ticket and will send you to the hole. However, it is very profitable and is in high demand. Prison tattoos for many inmates are a rite of passage or symbols of gang affiliation. For some they are addictive as the turn their whole bodies into works of art. Tattooing requires equipment that is not legal to possess including needles and body ink. Electric beard trimmers are often stolen to be turned into tattoo guns. Body ink must be manufactured and subsequently varies widely in quality. Prison tattoos can be distinguished from street tattoos because the ink color often fades quickly. Many people with prison tattoos talk about getting them touched up when they get out.
The problem with permanent art is that there can be no room for mistakes. Tattooing must be conducted in secrecy and is frequently performed in short bursts of activity between officer rounds in the housing unit. Large projects may take weeks to complete. More than one person is walking around in prison with incomplete tattoos because they got caught or rode out before it was done.
Example of a prison tattoo gun.
Without all the accouterments of a tattoo parlor it is easy for a design to be poorly placed or sized, words can be misspelled or designs look like they are drawn by a kindergartner. What looked good on paper may not look so good on skin. Very few people think about what a tattoo will look like on their body 20 or 40 years from now.
Then there is the whole issue of disease. Hepatitis, HIV, MERSA and other diseases can be spread easily through shared needles or open wounds. Hygiene and medical supplies that are available are not adequate to safely minimize the risk of infection, yet there are always inmates willing to take the risk.
The painter is the truest form of Artist. There are even art shows in which drawings and paintings can be exhibited for cash prizes and sale to the public. Additionally, they will take commissioned projects from inmates who want a photograph of their loved ones turned into a portrait. The painter can legally sell their works and transfer ownership so the only risk is that of the art critic.
The Graphic Artist that specializes in greeting cards can have a good little hustle. For a modest investment in art supplies they can feed themselves by selling a card a day for $1 in food. Everyone has a Hallmark holiday or family occasion that needs to be commemorated.
These are poor examples of what a prison greeting card might look like. By no stretch of the imagination would I consider myself an artist. I could never make a living at drawing, but I know a number of guys who do.
These artists ply their trade in the day room and on the yard, displaying their works in a cash and carry business. Most will take commissioned works to customize a card with names, colors, and special designs. The quality and variety of cards varies greatly from artist to artist. But with all greeting cards “it is the thought that counts.”
Another person that I’ve net in prison is the Dramatic Actor, always playing the tough guy. They portray themselves to be “Dirty Harry”, a mob boss, or a gangster. Their favorite saying is “coming to prison is no time to get scared.” Violence is their solution to every problem they encounter. Possessing only a limited vocabulary and no coping skills, they are angered easily and rapidly escalate to fighting. Intimidation works for them frequently when the person they have confronted has better sense than to engage them.
The Dramatic Actor plays the role of the stereotypical inmate. They refuse to cooperate with staff on principle. They have the “us” versus “them” mentality. They will ridicule those who do cooperate and seek to punish those inmates who they perceive are enforcing the rules or won’t look the other way. An example of this is when the Dramatic Actor comes to the chow hall and demands that the line server put an extra serving or cookie on his tray. If the line server complies and gets caught it will cost him his job. On the other hand, he will face verbal abuse- threats and possibly even physical abuse on the yard later if he doesn’t comply. For some working in the kitchen is not an option simply because they have no desire to be beat up over a cookie or a hot dog.
These Dramatic Actors typically don’t perform in private, only in public. One-on-one they may actually be congenial, but when they are in front of their homeboys they always act tough.
I can’t help but go back to their favorite saying about coming to prison is no time to get scared, because that is what many of them are. They find safety in numbers by joining a gang. By acting tough many are hoping they can bluff their way through any situations that arise.
Another actor that I’ve encountered is the Comedian. Rather than violence, the Comedian seeks to defuse the situation with humor or attack with sarcasm. The Comedian is more intellectual than the Dramatic Actor, however it is still just an act. Rarely do you ever see the real person, just the persona.
The Comedian always has a joke or funny story to tell, but for some reason I’ve encountered very few that make puns. This may be related to the lower overall level of education and command of the subtler aspects of the English language. There are two types of Comedians- those that use self-deprecating humor and act like the clown and those that are insult comics wielding humor like a weapon.
The Clown will use humor as a way of making themselves less threatening. They try to lighten up the mood of any situation with a humorous insight, observation, or speculation. They want people to laugh with them and if necessary at them to avoid conflict. The Clown tends to be more of a loner or hangs out with a small group of like-minded individuals, just trying to go home.
The Insult Comic has a dark side. They see the negative in everything or anyone. Their vocabulary can be caustic and foul. Their subject matter is generally not suited for mixed audiences. To them humor is an instrument of war, as cruel as a knife or club, every blow is a low blow and every cut draws blood. They tend to hang out with the Dramatic Actors and are just another member of the gang.
The last type of person I’ve met in prison is the Invisible Man. The ghost who just passes’ through unnoticed. They are anonymous, quiet as a church mouse and seek to stay out of the way. Nobody knows their name, let alone who they are. They don’t make friends and have few associates in prison. They keep a low profile and have no interest in leaving their mark. Being incarcerated is not a badge of honor but rather a deep shame that can’t end soon enough.
The Invisible Man may have been the exact opposite out in the world. A successful business man, a family man, outgoing and carefree. However, they have been profoundly affected by the criminal justice system. For some this is only a temporary condition, while for others they will be changed for the rest of their lives. For most prison is like a nightmare and when they wake up it will be just a bad memory that fades. For a few it will haunt them for years to come.
There are certainly other types of people in prison, but by now you’ve noticed the trend. Not everyone is who they portray themselves to be. Prison is a microcosm of the free world. The only difference is that these people have been caught and convicted, while for others it is only a matter of time.
“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. ” -John 1:3
The Christian concept of forgiveness and reconciliation are incomprehensible to a society where retribution is the response to breaking the law. A law which ironically traces its roots back to the Commandments of the Judeo-Christian God. In modern society, those who break the law are subject to harsh punishment and even after it is over continue to ostracize and marginalize the offender.
We can see this in the change of language used to describe a person coming out of prison. Fifty years ago, this person would have been referred to as an “ex-con”. As a former convict they have fulfilled all the requirements of punishment placed on them for the crime they committed, and returned to society, hopefully to be a productive member.
Today we refer to those coming out of prison as “ex-offenders” and continually punish them in the form of hiring and housing discrimination, track them in databases, and restrict their freedoms by laws targeted specifically at those who have been convicted of a felony. This is retribution. Revenge for violating the societal covenant. It precludes the idea of reformation. It goes from trust but verify to skepticism and hatred.
Contrast this with the Biblical model of forgiveness, restitution, and reconciliation. The victim and the offender have a relationship and certain steps must be taken in order for the relationship to go forward. 12-Step programs teach that without being able to forgive those who have hurt us, we are only hurting ourselves. We keep ourselves in bondage to another by maintaining the bitterness and anger. We have bound ourselves in a way that prevents healing and keeps us trapped in time, unable to move forward with our lives. By forgiving others we let go of the hurt and grow spiritually and emotionally. Forgiveness allows us to move forward.
When we move forward can have closure on the past. The world just doesn’t get this at all. They speak of re-victimization, that old hurts will be reopened when the offender gets out of prison or when the past offense is revisited in the courts or the media. If the offender should ever encounter the victim or their family it’s like the movie “Ground Hog Day” having to relive the crime over again. Revictimization occurs because the hurts haven’t healed. The relationship was suspended at its lowest point and the trauma has not been dealt with by the types of counseling the world utilizes.
The Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:13 “Forgetting what is behind I press on towards the goal.” We must put the past behind us. “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” As Christians we are called to take on the character of God, so must forgive others just as God forgave us. We are called to look to the future where there will be “no more sorrow, nor crying, nor pain.” (Revelations 21:4)
The world just doesn’t get this just as the darkness doesn’t comprehend the light. They are two different natures. The Christian response of forgiveness is incomprehensible to the worlds concept of retribution. A victim that doesn’t hate their offender doesn’t fit into the world’s view. The talking heads on television become confused when trying to talk about the revictimization of a victim who refuses to be revictimized. Those like Nancy Grace can feel confident when speaking to or about a victim or victim’s family who wants to see the harshest penalty applied or see the offender kept in prison well past their Earliest Release Date (ERD). They will speak vehemently about victim’s rights, so long as they remain the victim. But what happens when the victim no longer wants to play the part? When the victim expresses forgiveness to the offender? Then they becomes the offended. The vitriol with which they will demonize the perpetrator of a crime rings hollow when forgiveness instead of retribution characterizes the relationship.
It’s easy to demonize someone you don’t know personally. You can read the “facts” as stated by the prosecution, discount any attempt by the defense at humanizing the offender and speak based on your “professional opinion” without taking time to get to know either party involved. They can pontificate with righteous indignation.
But forgiveness and reconciliation require communication and communication is the basis for relationship. Both parties in a relationship need to have some skill to effectively communicate and that may be where counseling may be of actual benefit. Communication requires a set of mutually comprehensible points of reference. A common language requires all parties to agree on the definitions of the words and standard forms of usage. Counseling can help both parties reach the stage where effective communication can take place so both sides can understand one another.
To genuinely forgive someone is a supernatural act where the offended lays down their “rights” to vengeance and instead following God’s example choses to restore the relationship with the offender, as if the offense never happened. When the offender seeks forgiveness, there is an implied promise that the offense will never happen again. Trust which was broken must be restored. It may take time to earn that trust by demonstrating commitment to not reoffend. Given time, trust can be re-established and the relationship will grow stronger.
With retribution there is no trust only suspicion. The underlying premise is that people can’t change, that once trust has been broken it can never be restored. Retribution serves to widen the gap between people, separating them by time, distance, and experience. In no way can retribution undo the harm done. It can’t replace what was lost. It only serves as a way of communicating the level of displeasure towards an individual because of their actions.
Reconciliation doesn’t preclude punishment for breaking the law, but it takes away the vengeance component and focuses more on discipline. Discipline is the correction of unacceptable behavior with the intention of changing the perpetrator’s attitudes and actions into those which are acceptable to society. Correction involves education in an environment conducive to learning. This is something that is severely lacking in today’s prisons. Over the course of time I intend to explore what prison conditions are like based on my experience and raise points for further public discourse. Crime and Punishment are difficult issues for which there are many perspectives and few viable solutions to what appears to be an intractable problem. I don’t claim to have the answers but want to focus on raising public awareness of issues for which we all have a vested interest.
The first person is almost a stereotypical persona, the Jail House Lawyer. Now everyone who has ever encountered the criminal justice system may want to see either their defense attorney or the Prosecutor behind bars, but I’m not talking about professional lawyers. The Jail House Lawyer has no formal education in the law. They have learned their craft by working on their own appeals. They spend long hours in the prison law library researching legal precedence. Dedicated to winning their freedom they will go to almost any length to exploit any perceived loophole in the law.
Christ, Crime and Punishment 