Tag: Prison

The Princess and the Pea

princess and pea
A stack of prison mattresses like this would look like heaven to most inmates.  

In the fairy tale the princess was a very sensitive sleeper and could feel a pea under a stack of mattresses.  She certainly would have been unable to sleep at all in the MDOC.  I used to think my college dormitory mattress was bad until I tried to sleep on a prison mattress.

Prison mattresses like everything else are constructed from materials that are inflammable.  They are simple constructions without box springs that fit the metal frame bunkbeds. The mattresses are manufactured by MSI (Michigan State Industries- a prison factory owned and operated in conjunction with the MDOC).  These mattresses are nothing to write home about, except I guess I am.  A few years ago, under the Granholm administration the MDOC contracted an empty prison to the state of Pennsylvania to house their prisoners.  One of several things that they found unacceptable and required to be changed was the mattresses.  As a result, MSI changed from the 3-inch thick solid fill to a 5-inch foam filled style mattress.  While the state of Pennsylvania left in a year, MSI continued to make the new mattress.  The unit counselor is responsible for ordering supplies for the housing unit and has a budget to order replacement mattresses to replace those that are ripped and torn. getting a new mattress is like winning the lottery.  The counselors always wanted to come in under budget so items like mattresses got ordered only under the most extenuating circumstances.

Cotton filled Mattresses are produced using a 12.5 oz. Light Green Colored Sure-Chek Vinyl Ticking, filled with fire-retardant treated cotton and tufted with a nylon tuft with plastic ends to prevent cotton from shifting.  These tufts will not trigger metal detectors or give a false reading when scanned and are visible on our outer tufted mattresses.  Inner tufted mattresses are preferred and highly recommended for                                                                                  more sanitary and durability concerns. 
                                                                         Product#  3282
                                                                         Type inner tufted
                                                                         Size 30″ x 76″ x 4″   
                                                                         Price: $67.80  

Michigan State Industries Website

Whenever a bed opens up, the first thing that happens is someone will check to see if the mattress on the empty bunk is better than the one they have.  It is a game of musical mattresses. Guys going home might even will their mattress to a friend.  For those less fortunate it may be a case of turning the mattress over and end to end in the vain quest to find the least uncomfortable set of lumps to sleep on.

At my last facility cost cutting got so involved that instead of replacing worn out mattresses the old ones simply had new covers sown unto them to cover up the worn, ripped and torn covers leaving the lumps.  It was obvious that the person who made this decision never tried to sleep on one of these old mattresses.

The Ministry of Silly Walks

Silly Walks The British comedy troupe Monty Python made fun of government bureaucrats in a sketch called ‘The Ministry of Silly Walks.’  In it they portrayed a number of characters with striding characteristics each more outrageous than the next.  If you spend any amount of time in prison you will quickly come to understand that life is stranger than fiction.

The Chain-Gang is the standard method of transporting prisoners outside of the facility. It involves not only the use of handcuffs but also belly chains and leg irons.  The intention is to make it impossible for a person to escape by making it impossible to run. Your hands are cuffed at your sides so that you can’t even scratch your nose.  Your ankles are cuffed together with about 16 inches of chain.  The result is that you cannot take a full stride but must shuffle your feet along.  To see a line of men walking this way is like viewing the March of the Penguins.  Arms hanging limp at their sides, straight legged they shuffle single file at the direction of the officers.  After only a couple of steps the bruises will begin to form as the front leg jerks the cuff of the back leg.  The cuff rests on the ankle bone making it very uncomfortable, especially for those with cankles.

In level IV you are locked down 20+ hours a day.  When you have the opportunity to get out of your cell to go someplace like the chow hall you tend to take your time in order to savor the fresh air and every possible minute outside of your cell.  The Level IV Shuffle looks a lot like the Chain-Gang except that there are no restraints involved.  Hands shoved into pants, legs straight, feet dragging as you slowly move in the intended direction. Progress needs to be sufficient so as to not incur the wrath of the guards who are impatiently escorting you in a scene that looks a bit like herding cats.  Men who have been locked down separately from their associates group up to carry on conversations from their last promenade at the slowest possible pace.

With the closing of state mental hospitals, the prison system has become the dumping ground for the mentally disturbed.  Without adequate mental health care, they end up in trouble with the law for trying to self-medicate or anti-social behavior.  Psychiatric care in prison frequently devolves in sedation.  When they are not sleeping the day away on their bunks you can spot them by their slow, zombie like walk known as the Thorazine Shuffle. At some facilities there are whole units dedicated to housing those participating in outpatient therapy.  At chow time it looks like a scene out of “The Night of The Living Dead” as they stagger to the chow hall.

In prison, how you walk can be part of your fashion statement or possibly a result of it. There is a fashion trend known as “Sagging” in which young men wear the waist of their pants on their upper legs thus exposing the tops of their boxers.  The pants tend to be extra-large and as a result the crotch sags down to their knees.  This fashion statement is meant to defy authority since it is against the rules and could result in a ticket.  The practice of Sagging occurs both inside and outside of prison and is an anti-authority statement.  To keep the pants from falling down one hand must be occupied holding the pants in the designated position.  Activities that require both hands place the individual at the risk of dropping their pants.  One time I had an older gentleman tell me that he had warned his son that if he didn’t keep his pants pulled up properly that one day it would be his downfall. Sure enough, the son tried running from the police with his pants sagging and they fell down and he was captured.  In prison the fashion statement is taken to the extreme with pant waists below the butt exposing two pairs of prison shorts plus boxers in a multi-layer effect.  This fashion faux pas knows no bounds because I have seen guys wearing extremely over-sized sweat suits jogging on the track with one had desperately trying to hold their pants up.  You’d think they’d learned their lesson the first time when they originally got caught.

The average age of prisoners is increasing in Michigan and is now over 40 years of age. This is the result of both the increased length of sentences keeping in prison longer and the number of seniors now coming to prison, many for the first time.  As a result, there is an increasing number of prisoners with physical infirmities that either need a cane or a wheel chair to get around.  We refer to these as Sticks and Wheels.  Now just about everyone in prison is looking for an edge and having a medical disability is a frequent way guys attempt to get that edge.  Having a wheel chair or cane may qualify a person for a special early chow detail and use of an assistant to carry their meal tray.  And not two hours later the same guy may be spotted in the weight pit doing squats or running on the track. I’m not saying that everyone in a wheel chair or using a cane is faking it, but I’ve seen more than my share of miracles.

At the other extreme I’ve seen guys in such poor health that moving from a bunk or toilet to a wheel chair is almost borderline impossible.  Broken bodies that cannot run the gauntlet of double doors, narrow halls and over-crowded living situations.  Men in such poor health that they need to be in assisted living watched over by a nurse and not a guard.  Those who can no longer care for themselves let alone hurt another person.

Putting an air of confidence is important but it can be taken a bit too far on occasion resulting in a walk straight off a Paris fashion runway or a 1970s Superfly movie.  Long leg stride with loose hips and wide slung shoulders, one arm thrusting sharply down. Head erect, eyes forward checking to make sure that all eyes are on him.  All that’s missing is the purple pimp suit with the felt hat and feather.  Someone who knows they’ve got it all going on and are “too cool for school.”  This walk is usually associated with a person who sees them self as a gangster living the hip hop lifestyle.  It is a walk meant to impress, but in prison we’re still not sure who.

As mentioned before there are a lot of seniors in prison and early mornings on the big yard look a bit like early mornings at the mall.  Mall Walkers are health conscious seniors who walk as a primary means of exercise.  Since there are no malls or indoor tracks they have to go out to the big yard and walk the track in the early morning, which allows them to beat the crowds of younger people later in the day.  Since the seniors tend to be early risers and the younger people sleep in it is just part of their natural cycles to separate themselves.  To be a true Mall Walker in prison takes dedication since you’ll be outdoors in all kinds of weather undeterred by only the most brutal winter weather or monsoonal rains.  Mall Walkers tend to walk alone with their thoughts.  They are not the fastest people on the track and probably don’t work up a heavy sweat, but have heeded their doctor’s warnings and will get a couple of miles in before retiring to a park bench for the rest of the day.

The middle age counterpart to the Mall Walker is the Power Walker.  More than likely many Mall Walkers are retired Power Walkers.  Power Walkers are people who can no longer run due to health conditions like bad knees. They follow their doctor’s advice to get their heart rate elevated for at least 30 minutes 3 to 5 times per week.  Many Power Walkers remember their youth from 5-10 years ago when playing softball on the weekend didn’t take all week to recover from it.  Brisk walking with swinging arm motion really gets the blood pumping, burns calories, and reduces stress.  It is also a good way to get out of the house.  Out in the world many of these people would probably have a large dog to walk.  In prison they walk singly or in pairs and are forced to weave in and out of traffic as they move at a higher rate of speed than the average track walker.

The most dedicated athletes on the track is the Weekend Warrior.  They run laps, do calisthenics and play sports, but this is a fair-weather crowd.  If it is rainy or too cold and snowy they prefer to stay indoors and play cards.  They have a well-rounded exercise program easily distinguished from the Weight Lifters and Body Builders who are in the weight pit or doing calisthenics religiously, but rarely if ever run.  This group is least likely to continue their regiment once they get out of prison.

The Body Builders are distinguished from the Weight Lifters by their goals. Weight Lifters brag about the massive amount of weight they can lift while Body Builders are regularly seen in front of the bathroom mirror flexing. The Weight Lifters and Body Builders are the most prone to sports injury and suffer long term disability because of their “no pain, no gain” philosophy.

The Average Joe out walking the track however isn’t there for any health benefit.  They are there because there is nothing else to do.  They walk in groups of two to six people wandering aimlessly around the track.  They gossip, joke, tell tall tales, and brag about what brought them to prison. They promenade around the track making it difficult for all the other groups by turning it into an obstacle course.  At times the track looks more like rush hour on a Detroit freeway than a NASCAR race because of them.

Satanic Psalms

In prison, rap lyrics are the only style of music that you hear being recited endlessly without the aid of a radio or MP3 player.  People don’t just sing along, they have memorized the words and meditate on them: “get money”; “bitches” and “ho’,”: “nigga”this and “nigga” that; Steal, Kill, and Destroy.  Rap lyrics are satanic psalms.

A friend once said that he didn’t think he’d be able to go to the bathroom out in the world because there wouldn’t be some guy in the next stall rapping.  There are wanna be rappers in the housing units, the chow hall, the school, waiting in lines-everywhere, not just on the yard.  They speak out loud into the air, but mostly to themselves.  Some original pieces, but most what they have learned from commercial artists.

Like your home town or gang affiliation, there are certain artists that are liked and others that are disliked.  Most have studied intently the biographies of their favorite artists and follow them on TV, radio, and in print.  When the next song comes out they gotta have it and discuss it among themselves like theologians or philosophers seeking to get all of the nuanced meaning out of the lyrics.

When a person spends their time, hour upon hour, meditating on, thinking about, internalizing and identifying with the ideas, lifestyle and morality expressed in music, it penetrates down deep into the bones and psyche. The old adage is true “you are what you eat.”  By saturating yourself in rap music you become enamored with violence, sex, drugs, gangs, selfish and self-gratifying behavior.  It is all you know, destroying any desire to learn about anything else.

By allowing rap music into prisons by way of TV, MP3 downloads and television, the MDOC allows the perpetuation of these errors in thinking: the dysfunctional and dystopian world view, the depraved and denigrating view of women, the glorification of violence and drugs as a way of life that brought so many to prison in the first place and keeps returning them in through a revolving door.

By living in an isolated sub-culture that has no redeeming value, no positive contribution to the greater society, fails to provide for itself through legal means, fails to utilize government programs as they are intended but rather uses the resources to perpetuate the lifestyle from generation to generation. The result is that 25% of the American population which identifies itself as African-American represents 50% of the incarcerated in the U.S.

Proverbs 23: 7 says, “For as a man thinks in his heart, so he is.”  Prison is intended to take a person out of a society in which they committed the offense and be rehabilitated so that they can be released without exposing the society to further risk.  As long as rap music is allowed to remain in prison, with its sub-culture, then it is undermining attempts at rehabilitation by singing its siren song.

Psalms 1:1-5 says, “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law, he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does shall prosper.”

Psalms 1 makes it clear that if you do the right things and think about the right things, you will be successful in life.  Prison needs to be about training those who have broken the law, not only to do the right thing next time, but to think in positive, constructive ways.  Education, both vocational and moral must be taught to those who do not have socially acceptable job skills or behavior. Raise the expectations for those in prison to change their behavior, to acquire the knowledge and skills required to make a legal living.  In some cases, it may need to be looked at like trying to deprogram someone who has spent time in a cult.  You have to remove them from the environment and then present compelling reasons to change, coupled with new information to overwrite the old.  Intensive programming like that must occur not only in the classroom or therapy group, but in the housing unit as well.

It doesn’t do to give the kids a bath when they are muddy and then let them go out and roll around in the muddy backyard.  You need to plant grass and provide other activities for them to participate in if you want them to stay clean.  The MDOC is only just beginning to understand this concept. Vocational students are being placed in housing units together with the intent of fostering a living environment that will make the learning process more effective.  If you don’t create an environment where you go to bed at a reasonable time and get up ready to work in the morning, the vocational training will not be placed within the context of developing good work habits or work ethics.

Sex offender programming is being conducted in sex offender housing units. This is a step in the right direction, however, if you don’t remove pornography and sexually explicit materials from the unit or block overtly sexual images from TV you are not going to help the person with a sexual addiction.  The same is true of violence and drugs.  Violent people need to be removed from conflict and drugs and alcohol need to be removed from the grasp of the addict.

If the MDOC can’t control the environment in prison then they aren’t really in control, the inmates are.  Very few people will successfully be able to change with help, let alone on their own in a negative environment.  It is the exception, not the rule, for a person to rise from poverty to wealth from illiteracy and ignorance to knowledge and comprehension, or from addiction to health.  You have to take the person out of the place where the problems allowed to flourish or fix the place before you can begin to address the problem effectively.

A simple place to start with is rap music.  It is not an attack on any specific ethnic group or race, but a necessary step to take control of undesirable sub-cultural influences that have a negative effect on the prison environment and is contrary to the departments goals for rehabilitation and correction.

Room Without A View

St. Louis Correctional

St. Louis Correctional Facility- the largest Level IV prison in Michigan.

Jails and prisons are not known for their hospitality, luxury, comfort, convenience, or aesthetics.  They are utilitarian facilities designed for security, control, functionality, and durability. The compound consists of a secure perimeter designed for controlled entrance and egress.  Razor wire, cameras, notion sensors, officer patrols on foot and by vehicle, inspections, metal detectors and body searches are the basis of security on the perimeter.  Prisons in many ways are based on the military model.  The difference being the focus on keeping inmates in.  However, with the advent of drones, smuggling contraband like cell phones and drugs in prison security is having to adapt to these new threats.

In the MDOC there are currently four levels of security: Level I, II, IV, and V. Level V is maximum security.  I’ve never been there but they tell me it’s not nice.  There are two ways to get there.  Maximum security is for those that are uncontrollable at lower levels of security or the entry point into the prison system for those serving life or very long sentences.

Level V is one-man cells, highly controlled movement and no creature comforts.  No personal property, no gym or yard time, no libraries, TVs, or day rooms.  Locked down 23 hours a day with only brief exercise periods outside in a cage.  Good behavior is the only way out.

Level IV is two-man cells, controlled movement and limited creature comforts.  Basic personal property like athletic shoes, radios, TVs, and books.  Locked down 22 hours a day with access to yard time and the day room.  Call outs for the gym, library and school are available. There are two types of level IV facilities.  There are those that stand alone and those that are part of a multi-level facility.  The latter type was the type of level IV that I’ve experienced.

Level IV is also a destination for those whose behavior could not be controlled in general population or for those with more than seven years to serve till their ERD.  I spent seven months in Level IV.  In multi-level facilities level IV prisoners are segregated and not allowed to interact with those from other levels.  Separate yard, gym, library, medical, chow and visits.

In level IV cells the doors lock from the outside.  The furniture is bolted to the floor.  The toilet is in the cell.  The windows have bars over the glass and only a small vent to get fresh air. An officer must let you out of your cell to go to work, take a shower, attend call outs or do anything at all.  Church services were held in the housing unit and inmate lead with occasional outside volunteer speakers.

Level II along with level I is called General Population.  Level II is as far down as lifers will ever get.  Two-man cells and they give you your own room key.  Incoming prisoners with a minimum of 5 years to serve and a maximum of 7 years are generally assigned to level II.  Prisoners with disciplinary issues in level I and sent to level II.  In fact, some people dislike level I so much that they will intentionally earn enough points from minor tickets to get sent to level II.

In multi-level facilities level I and II prisoners go to school together, worship together, attend gym, library and medical callouts together and go on visits together.  They used to share the big yard together but there at the multi-level facility I was at they separated the big yard time for level I and II there because there was too much violence.

The cells have a bunk bed, two desks with chairs and two lockers.  While the windows have a vent to get fresh air there were no bars over them.  Toilets and showers were down the hall. A big improvement over level IV.

One of the best things about level II was access to a microwave oven.  It’s no fun preparing Raman Noodles or instant coffee with warm tap water from the bathroom sink faucet in your level IV cell.

Level I facility housing units are mostly pole barn style dormitories with open cubicles. Level V, IV, II and unsecured level I housing units are cell based.  There are two types of level I facilities- secured and unsecured. Unsecured level I is for level I prisoners with less than two years to their ERD, ticket free and don’t have certain restricted convictions. These prisoners are generally gate pass eligible to work jobs outside the compound fences.  For those qualified, unsecured level I represents an oasis of peace and quiet.  The housing unit still has a fence with barbed wire but not the double row that surrounds secure facilities.  Unsecured level I has come and gone several times as bed space was required.  Technically being located outside the secure facility means that the inmates housed there have limited access to the compound only for medical and the visiting room.  They have their own small yard and meals are served in the housing unit.

Secured level I comprises roughly half of the bed space in the MDOC. When the prison population exploded in the 1980s the MDOC went on a building spree and created what they referred to as “Temporary” facilities.  Rather than utilizing cells the housing units are an open dormitory design with cubicles subdividing the pole barn structure along hallways. While most prisons were made to last, these pole barns were not designed to remain in service as long as they have and it really shows.

I was at level I Temporary facilities with pole barn housing units and they were really showing their age.  Poorly insulated, poorly lighted, bare concrete floors, endless plumbing problems, dusty and a security nightmare.  At my last facility they were closing the pole barns one at a time to perform major repairs and updating things like security cameras.

Originally built to house 80 inmates per unit the pole barns have had their capacity doubled to 160 beds, but not toilets, showers, sinks or day room seating.  According to the American Correctional Association each inmate should have 60 sq. ft. of space in semi-private sleeping areas. In an 8 man cube the furniture takes up all the space and I only had a couple of square feet in front of my bed. Just enough room to put my feet on the floor as I sat on my bed or looked into my locker.

The pole barns were built in the 1980s and 90s.  The biggest thing to change in the MDOC since then is the level of violence in level I.  When the prison population expanded, and prison facilities proliferated these level I temporary facilities were like honors units.  Due to a few bad incidents the work camps and farms were closed and these prisoners were moved to these new secure facilities.  Violence wasn’t tolerated and those that engaged in it found themselves back behind the walls of the old prison in Jackson.

After the closing of the old walled prison and the pressure to reduce cost more inmates were moved into the pole barns including those with violent crimes, less than stellar institutional records or gang affiliation.  The result is that the open design lead to problems with theft and violence inside the housing units.  To address this while I was there they added wire cage structures to the top of the walls that separated the cubicles in the front and back halls and added additional security cameras.  Like putting a Band-Aid on cancer, a cosmetic fix for a truly institutional problem.

Security cameras don’t make things safer.  After the fact they might provide evidence to identify the perpetrator but the damage has already been done. And in an ironic twist, the same cameras used to convict are conveniently broken or didn’t show anything when an innate seeks to use video to exonerate themselves.  But inmates have to take the Inspectors word for it since they can’t be shown the video since it is a security rule.

The wire caging goes from the top of the wall up to the ceiling to prevent inmates and stolen property from crossing from one side of the housing unit to the other out of sight of the cameras which look up and down the halls.  The caging was nothing fancy.  It took the inmate maintenance crew two days to install the panels.  Only time will tell whether these measures will reduce theft and violence in level I pole barns.

As a cost saving measure a few years ago the MDOC closed the level V prison in Standish. That again had a ripple effect across the MDOC.  It wasn’t that there were fewer level V prisoners, they simply waved the security classification to move inmates to lower security levels- V to IV, IV to II, and II to I.  The higher the security level the higher the cost of incarceration.  Level V costs more than twice the cost to house an inmate in level I.  While cutting cost was a political decision when the legislature reduced the department’s budget, it failed to account for the human cost. When inmates are placed in a lower security level it should be because they have demonstrated good behavior and cooperation in completing programming.  The issue is that you end up in prison because of bad behavior and time in prison alone won’t improve it.  The higher levels are intended to reduce the inmate’s ability to cause mischief through isolation. So, the inmates institutional record at the higher levels by its self my not be a good predictor of what will happen at lower levels.  By waving initiates to lower levels, the MDOC let predators lose in the lower security levels.  There were still in prison where the general public was protected from than but free to hurt other inmates.  But they’re just inmates, right?

Housing units in the MDOC are not air conditioned.  During the summer the air temperature inside will often exceed 80˚F and with a heat wave can approach 90˚F or higher.  Without air conditioning there is no dehumidification so you also have to account for the heat index as well.

The school, medical and administration buildings where the staff work do have air conditioning and many of the housing unit counselors have retrofit air conditioners installed in their offices.  So apparently suffering through the heat is part of the punishment.

For those inmates with certain medical conditions where hot temperatures could put them at risk for a medical emergency their medical classification will include an accommodation for heat related illness that will allow them to utilize designated cooling centers when the facility is under a heat advisory.  Heat advisories are issued when the heat index goes above 100˚F. During a heat advisory all strenuous activity is curtailed, no weight pit, no outdoor sports of any kind.

When it gets hot in the housing unit it tends to remain hot.  The brick and concrete construction absorbs the heat and holds it long after it cools off outside.  I had many miserable nights unable to sleep because it was too hot.  There is little air movement because the windows in Level II and IV only have small vents for fresh air.  With the cell doors closed there is no way to generate air movement.  The level I pole barns have slightly larger windows which open with screens.  Unfortunately, the building design prohibits good air circulation.  Ceiling fans do little to move air in/out of the building.  The bunks closet to the windows are highly coveted because they are the only that benefit from the fresh air.

The heat really takes its toll physically and heat stroke is a real possibility. In housing units with fixed temperature controls in the showers even taking a cool isn’t an option.  The small personal fans do almost nothing to alleviate the discomfort.

Most facilities don’t have ice makers in the housing units.  Those that do can’t provide enough ice to cool 160 men.  You could expect that it would be empty before count time and that there would be a stampede when count clears as guys try to beat the adage about ice water in hell.

Prisonisms

Prison:

  1.  A place where persons convicted or accused of crimes are confined; a penitentiary or a jail.
  2. A place or condition of confinement or forcible restraint.
  3. A state of imprisonment or captivity.

While prison is a physical place made up of buildings with barred windows, locked doors, and surrounded by fences intended to keep people securely and safely away from society; it is also a state of mind that imprisons the spirit in ways that no parole can ever free them from.

-ism:

  1. Action, process, practice.
  2. Characteristic behavior or quality.
  3. State, condition, quality.
  4. Distinctive or characteristic trait.
  5. Doctrine, theory, system of principles.
  6. An attitude of prejudice against a given group.

–ism is a suffix added to the end of a word which transforms the root word.

breakfreechainPrisonisms are the shackles that bind the mind and spirit that can only be unlocked from the inside.  They are the prisons of our own making that we have confined ourselves within, often for a life sentence.  Only God has the power to commute your sentence.  No amount of education or re-education, counseling, or religious programming can set you free.  A popular Bible in prison is the “Free on The Inside” Bible published by Biblica explains in simple English how God can set you free, but it all starts with you.  You have to take the first step.  For many people fear is what keeps them bound.  Fear of change, fear of the unknown, fear of being ridiculed or ostracized by their associates, fear of being alone.  Prisonisms are often the root cause of recidivism.  Errors in thinking that cause an individual to slip back into a pattern of criminal behavior, if they ever left it.

Alcoholism: Psychophysiological dependence on alcoholic beverages.

Substance abuse is a major underlying factor in crime.  Studies report up to 90% of crime is related to or committed under the influence of drugs or alcohol.  This continues to be a problem for those who are incarcerated. “Spud juice” prison home brew is readily available and consumed in amounts sufficient to get drunk, as often as a prisoner can afford to. Brewing alcohol in prison is big business and an organized crime.  Teams coordinate the theft of ingredients from the chow hall and individuals steal from other initiates to pay their bar tabs.  Half-hearted attempts by custody staff to prevent theft from the kitchen and lax security in the housing units makes this possible.

AA/NA groups are held in every prison, but too many attend these groups for the wrong reasons.  They want to look good for the Parole Board rather than change their ways.  For those individuals, coming to prison wasn’t hitting rock bottom and they are not prepared to admit that they are powerless over their addictions.  They are dying for a drink.

Barbarism: An act, trait, or custom characterized by ignorance or crudity.

The corrections officer’s union advertises that their job is the most dangerous job in the state, which propagates the stereotype.  Violence in prison is accepted by far too many as being part of the sentence.  The price you pay for committing a crime against society is to serve time in the “Thunderdome”.  Some prisons have the reputation of being gladiator schools.

Coming to prison is a rite of passage for being a gang member and a fertile ground for recruiting new members. “There is safety in numbers” is the recruiters mantra. “Us” versus “Them”, predators versus prey, CO’s versus inmates, black versus white, gang versus gang, strong versus weak, young versus old.  The old wild, wild west idea of an armed society is a polite society is propagated from one generation to the next.  Defy authority; rules are made to be broken; stupid is as stupid does; ignorance is bliss; life imitates art imitates life.  A vicious cycle of depravity.  Life is cheap.  Only the strong survive.

Some people say that capital punishment is barbaric.  I can tell you from first-hand experience that it’s not the only thing barbaric about the criminal justice system.

Dogmatism: Arrogant, stubborn assertion of opinion or belief.

In prison there is no mutual cooperation because everyone believes that they’re right and everybody else is ignorant. “I’ll see it when I believe it” describes the state of unreality many prisoners live in “LaLa Land”. Students arguing with teachers over school rules and policy.  Everyone is convinced that they have the best, most accurate insight into human behavior.  They know the best way to get things done whether it be cooking, cleaning, or jailing.  Life could be so much better if everyone else did it their way.  They deny your reality and substitute their own.  They rearrange and reinterpret the facts to fit their own conclusions.  “I’m right and you’re wrong.”  When something doesn’t work out or they get caught it must be somebody else’s fault.  There must be a snitch, “I’m too slick to get caught.” Conspiracy theories; slavery; white power; “sex, drugs and rock-n-roll”; reality television is real; sports and hip hop will make you a millionaire; easy money; every woman wants what I’ve got; Orange is the new black; Next time I won’t get caught; I’m a bad man; A tough guy; A gangster; A fighter and a lover.  “I’m never gonna change, but I’m never coming back to prison.”

Until attitudes change, lifestyles will not change.  Dogma blocks any attempts to enlighten through the willful disregard of truth.

Hedonism: Pursuit of or devotion to pleasure.

“If it feels good, do it.”  Impulse control is an issue for many people in prison.  Their daily pursuit is pleasure: food, TV, alcohol, sex and not necessarily in that order.  They don’t worry about others, they are the most selfish people on earth, only concerned about themselves.  They look for ways to “get over” on people.  Their idea of work is doing nothing for something.  They always look for the easy way out, getting someone else to do it for them.

They trade the main course for an extra dessert.  Up all night, sleep all day; Party animal; Eating machine; Rap star; Pop culture trivia expert.  They have multiple baby’s mamas, none of which is their current wife or girlfriend.

They have never worked a day in their lives (legitimately).  They never have a dime in their trust accounts because they owe restitution, but always go to the store.  They live on coffee and honey buns (the breakfast of champions) and nacho do’s.  They deny themselves nothing today and put no thought towards tomorrow or how their actions impact others.  “Eat, sleep and be merry for tomorrow die” is their mantra.

Fatalism: The doctrine that all events are predetermined and unalterable.

For some, coming to prison was inevitable.  They see themselves as the product of their environment.  The child of poverty, growing up in a broken home, raised by their grandmothers because their addicted mothers were unfit, never knowing their fathers. Running wild on the streets; never having anything of their own except a record; state raised.

Entitlement mentality: Bridge Cards; Welfare; Cash Assistance; Unemployment; No education, can’t get a job, but why bother?  They take no responsibility for anything.  The system is broken, the cards are stacked against me.  The cops are out to get me.  A felon can’t get a job, so I’ll keep selling dope on the corner and see how long I can stay out of prison before I get caught or killed. Dropped out of school to hustle, doesn’t see any value in earning a GED.  Book learning can’t prepare you for a life on the streets. Life is hard so I have to be hard too.  Life is painful so I take drugs to dull the pain.  Life is a bitch and then you die.  There isn’t anything else, no after life – no god would be so cruel as to make us live this way.

Without the good news of the gospel of Christ the people parish.  Fatalistic people need a compelling reason to live life as if life – both theirs and others – really matter.

Institutionalism: Use of public institutions for the care of those who are mentally disabled or who are criminally delinquent, or incapable of independent living.

In the 1980s two things happened to cause an explosion in prison populations: Mental hospitals closed leaving the mentally impaired no place to go except the streets which in turn lead them to prison.  The second was the imposition of longer prison sentences. Prison became a maze with no way out for many people.

Prison is a highly structured place: set times to eat, work, study, and play. This is something that many in prison couldn’t change on their own.  The state provides three meals a day, shelter and clothing.  No responsibility to do anything for yourself.  For those who lived on the streets, it doesn’t get much better than that.  Also, for those with mental issues, they are getting some mental health care such as counseling and medication to help regulate their mood or to help them sleep.

For some spending long periods of time behind bars leaves them behind. Family and friends move on or die, technology advances put them at a disadvantage and leave them so lost that the world they return to is foreign to them.  They simply seek to return to the security of the simple life that they’ve come to an accommodation with in a love/hate relationship.

Puerilism: Childish behavior in an adult.

Many men in prison are literally and figuratively in a state of arrested development. Grown men who are very immature.  They throw temper tantrums, act out to get attention, and have no self-discipline.  Gray hairs acting like teenagers: following youth culture, music, and dress styles.  They insist on having their way and will make a scene to get what they want, when they want it.  Many have the attention span of a humming bird. Afflicted with ADHD or other mental disorders, they are unable to focus long enough to learn anything from their required programming.  Forced to sit through classes without the benefit of medication that would allow them to concentrate, they are disruptive to others and have disciplinary problems.  They run the yard like they ran the streets and are unable to lay down when they receive tickets and have to serve LOP (loss of privilege) which only compounds the problem.  Unable or unwilling to follow directions or obey rules, they can’t complete a program or a parole.  Self-medicating to try and regain a “normal” feeling only compounds the issue. They are more like the pirates than the Lost Boys living in Neverland.

Diabolism: Devilish conduct or behavior.

While the barbarians are sociopaths, the truly diabolic are psychopaths. They have no conscience.  You can see the predatory look in their eyes, like the big cats eyeing the wildebeest.  They test the fences always looking for weaknesses to exploit.  They know exactly where all the security cameras are.  They are loners who are never alone.  They surround themselves with minions that aspire to be like them.

They hate the world they live in and anyone who is not like them.  They judge everything and condemn what they determine to be soft.  They despise those who have prosperity and happiness, just like the Grinch. They are distrustful of any authority.  They live life by their own rules. They demand respect but rarely give it.  They value no life but their own.

When given a choice between a legal or illegal opportunity, they always choose the illegal one. They see themselves not just as living on the fringe of society, but outside it as true outlaws.  They are rebels without a clue.  They are truly a menace to society.  They are pathological liars who believe their own lies.  The truly unrepentant and unremorseful. The only thing they regret is getting caught.

These are the ones that Christ died for because nobody else would.  They are filled with legions of demons that only Christ can excise.

Defeatism: Acceptance of or resignation to the prospect of defeat.

Many people who come to prison proclaim their innocence and mount a boisterous and rigorous appeal.  There are others, however, who arrive beaten up and broken down by the criminal justice system.  These people have resigned themselves to the end of their lives as they know it. Whether they are actually guilty or not doesn’t matter at this point. They have lost everything: family, friends, jobs, assets and just want to get their prison sentence over with.  Emotionally and spiritually drained, they have lost faith in society and the government bureaucracy that they thought once cared for them and have now given up hope of a happy ending.

These people are more or less law-abiding citizens who ended up in prison after their first encounter with the criminal justice system and never imagined that they’d be on the inside looking out.  Facing long prison sentences, they are ill prepared for life behind bars.  They are not hardened criminals, but someone who made a mistake, a lapse in judgment and will pay for it with the rest of their lives even after they are released.  They have gone through a life altering experience and it has broken them.  They have no energy, the has gone out of their eyes.  They don’t feel like they have anything left to life for.  They feel abandoned by God and their prayers go unanswered.

These are the least of these that Jesus said we should give a cup of water to. They need to know that Jesus hasn’t left them or forsaken them.

Parasitism: The characteristic behavior or mode of existence of a parasite.

There are two types of parasites in prison.  Those who live life vicariously through others and those who are a financial drag on society.

Social parasites are busy bodies, gossips, rumor mongers, ear hustlers, nosey neighbors. They don’t have a life of their own so they are in everyone else’s business.  They can’t keep a secret and don’t really try.  They are information brokers.  They butt in where they don’t belong, join in conversations uninvited.  By focusing on everyone else around them they never address their own issues.  God is the only one they should be listening to and he would gladly use their talents to spread His gospel among all men.

Financial parasites live off the largess of others.  They borrow from family and friends, bunkies, cubies, and the “store man.”  They may be either too lazy to work or enjoy living far beyond their means.  They have an entitlement mentality and believe that someone will take care of them: parents, spouse, significant other, or the government.  They don’t adequately monitor their spending habits or cash flow and have frequent confrontations with their debt holders.  Their solution to their financial problems in prison is to lock up and ride out, then start over someplace else.

In the world foreclosure, repossession, calls from collection agents and bankruptcy are familiar events.  Payday lenders, pawnshop brokers, welfare, cash assistance and SSID are their way of life. They won’t do anything to jeopardize these by getting a GED or job training.  The only debt they don’t have is a debt of gratitude.

Parasites need to learn that the only one we should be dependent upon is God.  He wants to provide all they need if they would only agree in return to be generous to others.

Here are a few more –isms that can be used to describe some facet of prison and the prison experience. If you aren’t familiar with the word look it up in a good dictionary:

  1. Absurdism
  2. Activism
  3. Adventurism
  4. Antagonism
  5. Aphorism
  6. Chauvinism
  7. Classism
  8. Criticism
  9. Cronyism
  10. Despotism
  11. Determinism
  12. Egotism
  13. Elitism
  14. Empiricism
  15. Escapism
  16. Euphemism
  17. Exhibitionism
  18. Existentialism
  19. Externalism
  20. Favoritism
  21. Idealism
  22. Indeterminism
  23. Individualism
  24. Inerrantism
  25. Infantilism
  26. Instrumentalism
  27. Intellectualism
  28. Intuitionism
  29. Irrationalism
  30. Legalism
  31. Mannerism
  32. Materialism
  33. Narcissism
  34. Nepotism
  35. Obscurantism
  36. Obstructionism
  37. Opportunism
  38. Optimism
  39. Paralogism
  40. Particularism
  41. Passivism
  42. Paternalism
  43. Patriotism
  44. Pauperism
  45. Perfectionism
  46. Pessimism
  47. Pragmatism
  48. Privatism
  49. Professionalism
  50. Prohibitionism
  51. Racism
  52. Recidivism
  53. Relativism
  54. Sadism
  55. Sexism
  56. Skepticism
  57. Solecism
  58. Stoicism
  59. Terrorism
  60. Vandalism
  61. Vulgarism

 

Phone Tag

This is what the phones in the housing unit looked like at my last Level I facility.

Communication with friends and family in the free world is very important to those serving time in prison.  There are four primary means of communication available to inmates: phone calls, email, snail mail, and visits.  For some visits are a rare treat to savor, while these other forms of communication take precedent and occur at greater frequency.

In the housing units and on the yard are phones that can be used when the housing unit or yard are open.  Collect and pre-paid debit calls can be made to a limited number of phone numbers each month (check for change to the phone policy).  Except for calls to lawyers, the calls are recorded and possibly monitored.  A phone call can last 15 minutes.

Given the ratio of inmates to phones there is almost always a line of people waiting to get on the phone.  There is no privacy in prison and the phones are no exception.  The phones are clustered together making it easy for other inmates to overhear half of the conversation.  Many prefer to use the outdoor phones since it tends to be a little quieter than in the housing units.

Phone service is under contract with a private service provider that is responsible for the upkeep of the system.  It seems that at any one time at least one phone in four is out of service.  Men in prison experience high levels of stress and frustration and tend to take it out on those they are talking to on the phones and when that is not good enough they take it out on the phones themselves.  The current carrier is Global Tel Link (GTL).  Phone rates are a national issue and both the FCC and the federal courts have gotten involved trying to set fair rates.  Prisons are captive markets and almost every vendor under contract to the MDOC to provide services and products to inmates take advantage of that by charging significantly more than what the general public normally pays with a free market. With the MDOC these higher prices generally translate into so portion of the proceeds being shared by the department.  In the real world we would call this a kick back, but it is business as usual for Corrections.  In the case of GTL, they offered to set up a fund where the states portion of the revenue proceeds would go to buy cell phone detection and blocking technology to combat the growing problem of contraband cell phones in prisons.  (At the time of the contract award it was against federal law for the states to utilize this form of technology.)  The result is that prison phone calls cost $0.34 -$0.37 per minute, depending on whether they are collect or debit calls.  Long distance and international calling rates were even higher.  Now this is far better than the county jail were calls could cost $1.00 per minute, which is outrageous and far beyond what calls cost in the free world.  It is clearly a case of the state and counties making profit from those that can least afford it.  At one point the courts ruled that it was predatory pricing and ordered that phone rates be reduced, however the phone companies that provide services to prisons and jails successfully lobbied to get a stay while further study was done.

Either an inmate can put money on a disbursement to GTL to setup a debit account to pay for phone calls or those that receive the calls can either contract with a phone carrier that will allow them to receive collect calls and then bill their account or they can put money on a debit account of their own with GTL.  When I was in the county jail the hardest phone call I have ever had to make in my life was to my mother.  Fortunately, it was a land line and the carrier allowed them to accept the charges.  Cell phone carriers don’t work that way and you have to set up the prepaid debit account.  I was fortunate enough that I had the luxury of calling home collect and put money on a debit account so that I could call my family’s cell phones in case of emergency or vacation. Most people in prison don’t have that luxury.  I made it a practice to call home for 15 minutes once a week for the 8 years that I served behind bars.  This probably ran into the thousands of dollars in order to keep the lines of communication open.  Not everybody in prison will be able to afford this, although I knew several married guys who called home daily to talk to their wife and kids.

Being able to have the ability to pick up the phone and make a call is a major comfort to people in prison.  I knew a lot of guys whose priority was putting money on the phone instead of purchasing commissary items.  If you have a loved one in prison the best thing you can do for them is to set up a pre-paid debit account so they can call your cell phone and talk to you any time they can.  In a place so full of stress and hostility, being able to hear a friendly voice is a comfort and a blessing beyond words.

This is what a JPay kiosk looks like. You can send and receive email using a very limited function computer terminal.

Starting around 2010 the MDOC brought in another vendor JPay to provide a form of electronic communication.  Friends and family can register on the JPay website and buy “stamps” to send what amounts to email to prisoners.  In the housing units, prisoners can then use a kiosk with a monitor and a keyboard where they can send and receive JPay messages.  The inmate can only send messages to people who have registered on the JPay website to communicate with them. The inmates can also buy “stamps”.  It costs about $0.50 per “page” to send a message.  Messages can even have photo attachments.  These messages are subject to the MDOC mail policy.

Snail mail through the good old USPS is also a good way to keep in contact with inmates. In 2017 the prisoner mail policy was updated due to contraband being sent to prisoners. Envelopes are discarded because of drugs being hidden in the adhesive under stamps, flaps, or address labels. Also, black or blue ink only, no colored ink, borders, or water marks.  Photos printed on plain paper only are permitted.  Forget sending stuff like newspaper articles, magazines, church bulletins, etc.  Greeting cards also have restrictions.

Children will longer be able to send their daddies refrigerator art.  It is as if the MDOC wants to discourage people from sending snail mail to prisoners.  The same thing has occurred in county jails where the only permissible format is a postcard.

Prisoners can purchase letter sized envelopes with metered postage.  The story is that back in the day, prisoners actually purchased postage stamps but that these would be treated like currency and used to pay prison debts among prisoners who would send the stamps to people in the free world who could return the stamps to the USPS for cash.  I can’t verify this but it was told to me by a lifer bunkie who had been down since the 1970’s.  It is an example of how those held against their will will attempt to find ways to circumvent the system.  And that a few will ruin it for everyone.

Pavlovian Response

Pavlov's dog

Ivan Pavlov is known for his work in Classical Conditioning back in the early Twentieth Century in which he was able to create a learned response in dogs by getting them to salivate when a bell was rung rather than by showing them food.  In the MDOC something similar happens.  Meal service begins morning, noon, and evening after count clears.  The housing units are dismissed to the chow hall one at a time.  There are different rules in different levels and the COs also enforce their own rules.  In general, the lobby area is off limits until the unit is called to chow.  The CO gets on the PA system and announces “Chow Time” to dismiss the unit to chow.

In level IV the inmates must be released from their rooms and they will then leisurely stroll to chow, drawing out the amount of time spent out of their cells to the maximum amount possible.  There is no urge to be first because there is no sitting and enjoying the meal.  You eat and you leave the chow hall under the strict watch of the COs.  But level I and II are completely different.

In level I and II when the unit is called to chow it is a stampede.  The door to the unit is a natural choke point and it gets pretty crowded with bodies jostling each other to get out.  When you add canes and walkers, someone is likely to get run over.  To alleviate this some facilities will call a special early chow for handicapped inmates.  Those with canes or walkers find it difficult standing in line and given the distance from the housing unit to the chow hall would end up at the back of the line.

mdoc-food-service
MDOC food service at an unnamed prison.
( Photo: Ryan Garza/Detroit Free Press)

Chow can take 1½ to 2 hours to run depending on the size of the chow hall and the number of inmates to be fed.  Factors like food preparation issues can add additional delays.  Aramark and Trinity had a history of problems like running out of food and were fined for it.  Running out of chicken quarters on a Sunday could delay the release of the last unit while more is cooked or an alternative like chicken patties were prepared.  In level I and II getting the last unit into the chow hall is the cue to open the yard.  Prior to this movement is controlled.  This means that after eating inmates return to their unit or go to callouts such as school or medical.  When the yard opens inmates can go into the front yard and big yard. The reason for controlled movement is to among other things prevent inmates from slipping back into the chow hall.

Double dipping is a real problem.  Portions are not big enough to satisfy most adults, so guys will try almost any way to get full.  To control food costs the kitchen prepares a certain number of meals based on estimates of inmate and staff meal consumption from historical records. For instance, maybe only 50% of inmates at a given facility regularly eat breakfast, so only that much food will be prepared for oatmeal, grits or cream of wheat days.  However, on waffle and sausage day 75% of the inmates will get up for breakfast so more food will need to be prepared that day.

From friends working in the kitchen I’ve heard reports of meal preparation exceeding 125% of the inmate population plus staff.  To combat this the MDOC invested in a computerized system using bar code or magnetic strip readers to scan ID cards as people go through the serving line.  But like the other cat and mouse games that inmates play they are always looking for ways to beat the system.  I’ve seen guys duck under the rail to get back in line when the staff wasn’t looking.  Guys passing trays from the line to others sitting nearby.  Guys taking two trays off the line to get a second burger or hot dog and abandoning the tray when they leave the end of the line.  Use someone else’s ID card who isn’t going to chow.  And the old standby of having a friend on the serving line.  All of this in addition to food service workers stealing food.  No wonder the portion sizes are so small.

Not only do you leave the chow hall hungry but also disappointed because the food quality is so bad that some things had to be left on the tray as uneatable.  Potatoes that were so over cooked that they are as hard as bricks.  Under cooked rice.  Over cooked greens.  Polish sausage that is the texture and consistency of rubber hose.  Fish that is mostly fins and scales.

There were rumors abound about boxes of food labeled “Not for Human Consumption” being delivered to food service for inmate meals. Newspaper articles appear from time to time documenting events where Aramark or Trinity were fined for attempting to serve food with maggots, rat droppings, or fished out of the garbage.  The bottom line is the bottom line, food costs money.  The goal is to feed an inmate for $1 a day and has been for years regardless of inflation.  When buying the cheapest food isn’t enough food service management will do whatever it can to contain costs, even cut corners.  I suspect that Pavlov’s dogs wouldn’t have salivated in anticipation of a meal at the MDOC.

Over Due

 

Prison libraries have the smell of old books and the looks of a hoarders living room without the eclectic charm. Books were the only thing to keep me sane.

 

By law inmates are not allowed access to the internet so computer access is very limited and heavily restricted.  The three places where inmates have access is the JPay kiosk for email in the housing units, educational software and GED test taking in the school, and the LexisNexis legal software in the Law Library.  All of which were grudgingly adopted. The MDOC is not a 21st century institution.

This is a picture of a law library in a federal prison with the computerized work stations similar to the ones I saw while I was in prison.

The General Library on the other hand is as traditional and anachronistic as it gets.  At my first facility it even had a card catalog.  At my second, the catalog was computerized, but made available to inmates in a printout kept in a 3-ring binder.  Fiction, Nonfiction, Reference, and Periodicals.  Like the rest of the MDOC there is really no budget to update the libraries contents. Books have to be acquired creatively, such as donations of books removed from circulation in public libraries and inmate donations which comprise the majority of the library collection.  The result is an eclectic conglomeration of incomplete series, authors no one has ever heard of, yellowing paperbacks and the odd best seller or two.

Reading 3 to 5 books per seek I probably read between 1200 and 2000 books. About my 3rd or 4th year I saw a guy with a notebook where he kept a log of everything he read.  I wish I had thought of that.  More than once I checked out a book that by the time I’d read the first chapter I realized I had already read it.  The low-tech method of date stamping an index card utilized means that the library clerk can’t tell you whether or not you’ve read a particular book title.

Most prison libraries have an Inter-Library Loan program where inmates can borrow books from the local public library.  The catch is there is no way to know what titles are actually in the library.  You need to have the book title and author you want to request. After completing the ILL form and signing a blank disbursement form to pay for the book whatever the cost if something should happen and it is lost.  Then wait three weeks to find out if it is available.  The perfect system for people who have nothing but time on their hands.

The library is a very small space packed floor to ceiling with books and sometimes a waiting list of guys wanting to get on the call out.  Frequently when I was reading a series I would have to wait weeks to get the next book.  One of the most frustrating things about the library was the number of lost books.  Guys rode out or go home and the books don’t get returned.  Books lost in the housing unit often turned into wedges to prop up desks or bunks, or any number of tragic ends.  It may take years for missing books to be removed from the catalog.

One of the blessings I received from my family was their willingness to order books for me from Amazon, an approved vendor for books that outside people could order from for us.  I was able to plug the holes in several series that I was reading by donating the books after I read them.

Getting newspaper subscriptions was problematic.  I had a subscription for my home town paper, but papers were frequently missing. Because of the indirect delivery system, the paper company did not give credit or refunds for the papers I did not receive.  The alternative is to read newspapers at the library.  With a short callout there wasn’t enough time to digest the whole weeks’ worth of papers, but at least I could look at the headlines so I could have some awareness of local events back home.

I couldn’t resist this bad prison pun. Early on I realized that there isn’t much humor in prison and made attempts to make light of the situation. While most guys could understand and tell dirty jokes most did not have the language skills for puns like this one.

Newspapers were generally available for 4 – 5 of the largest cities in Michigan so guys could keep on top of local news.  Magazines mostly dealing with culture are also available.  These varied greatly from facility to facility based on what requests the librarian was receiving from inmates.  All paid for by the PBF.

Like most libraries prison libraries are quiet.  At least relatively speaking in comparison to the rest of the facility.  I was always amazed how quickly the time passed there. Whether wandering through the stacks perusing the title looking for just the right book to read or skimming the headlines, the time just flew bye and all too soon it was time to go home.  If I hadn’t had a job working as a tutor I would have probably worked in the library.

While the callouts were always full, it represented only a small percentage of the inmate population. Too many men were functionally illiterate, others were poor readers who just didn’t enjoy it so won’t turn to it as a past time.  When working with students in the school I always encouraged them to sign up for a General Library call out, find something you liked to read.  I told than that the more they read the stronger they would get mentally.  I compared it to weight lifting. The more you do it the stronger you’d get.  It didn’t matter what the subject matter was just do it. With count tine occurring several times a day there was a 60-minute opportunity every day to exercise your mind.  Unfortunately, few took me up on this suggestion.

At one facility the library offered a 363-certificate program called the Individual Resource Study Center (IRSC).  It allowed inmates to independently study a variety of educational offerings. Course materials had homework and there was a final exam.  You worked at your own pace. Course offerings ranged from high school social studies and math, advanced small business to empathy and leadership courses.  The educational materials would help those who only had a GED to round out their education.

IRSC provided an opportunity for inmates to participate in self-help programming that was recognized by the parole board.  Due to lack of over sight by the librarian, the library clerks working with the program were able to falsify student assignments and test results for profit, to assist those who tried to exploit the program for the purpose of trying to look good for the parole board without doing the work.  As a result, the program was significantly curtailed, clerks were fired and greater oversight was instituted.  The materials I found to be at least 10 years old and like so many other programs, it started out with good intentions suffered from neglect.

One in A Million

Fiery_furnace_02
The symbolic story of tribulation and redemption is represented in this early Christian painting of the biblical story of “The Three Hebrews in the Fiery Furnace”. From the Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome, Italy. Late 3rd century / Early 4th century. 

There are exceptions to every rule.  There are personalities that don’t fit any profile. There is always one in every crowd.  There are behaviors that defy explanation.  There are people that beat the odds and succeed against all probability.  Even a blind squirrel finds the occasional nut.  Never say never.  When it comes to the human spirit statistics are meaningless.  Success is 5% genius and 95% perspiration.  By the grace of God.

Whether you believe in fate, karma, luck, or Jesus one thing is certain. Some people will walk out of prison like Daniel from the lion’s den or the 3 Hebrew boys from the fiery furnace. And it probably won’t be the ones that you might have picked going in. Everyone responds differently to prison.

The pressure: the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual pain that gnaws at you relentlessly. The conditions that make a diamond out of a lump of coal reduce everything else to dust.  There really are no winners coming out of prison, everyone has lost something.  But how you deal with adversity truly is a matter of character.

Do you make the best of a bad situation or roll over and die?  Do you see the glass as half full, half empty, or as an opportunity to get more?  Prison can make you bitter if you let it, but there is always a choice.  Grow, change, adapt, learn, look to the future.  Or you can cling to the past, resist, stagnate, and die.

Erma Bombeck once wrote a book entitled “The Grass Is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank.”  Well prison is a septic tank and there is most certainly a lot of sh*t there.  But it is all about how you deal with it.  Prison makes very few people better for the experience. More people are appreciative of freedom having lost it for a period of time.  Others found opportunities for education that they had failed to take advantage of in the world and leave with a degree or vocation.  Some learn their lesson and go straight.  All of these comprise a minority of those who are released.  But they have one thing in common. They did it themselves.  They didn’t expect the system to do it for them.  They made conscious decisions that affected the outcome in a positive way rather than just sitting back and going along for the ride.

No matter where you came from or who your family is, or what happened to you before going to prison, what matters is how you used your time there.  There are only two options: either you do your time or your time does you.  Figuring this out is what separates the winners and losers in the prison lottery.

If your loved one is in prison make sure that they understand this.  There is no magic trick, sleight of hand, or hocus pocus, only hard thankless hours of effort for which there is little short-term gain.  The rewards are all long term, deferred until after they are released.  If you can’t do right in prison, then you won’t do right in the free world.  The system is against you, wants to break you, doesn’t care if you succeed.  You have to reform yourself under the worst conditions imaginable.  But to do so is to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.  To walk away from a fatal crash.  To escape the maze.  To show true character in the face of adversity.  To be the one in a million.

Motel 6

1201193-Vintage-Black-And-White-Vacant-Prison-Cell-Poster-Art-Print

Tom Modell, the spokesman for the Motel 6 lodging chain used to end his commercials by saying, “We’ll leave a light on for you.”  A friendly way of letting people know that they were always prepared to receive guests.  The MDOC by contrast is more like the “Hotel California” in that “you can check out any time you want but you can never leave.” Prison and county jails for many are like a rat’s maze that is difficult to navigate, full of many dead ends, and all the exits seem to lead right back in.

Like all areas of government in this day and age, financial resources are tight, yet jails and prisons are critically over crowded.  Being asked to do more with less has resulted in a situation where jails and prisons more closely resemble warehouses than rehabilitation centers.  It has reached the point where correction has been replaced with punishment.  To most, the idea of pointless punishment is considered cruel and unusual, but for the MDOC it is business as usual.

After serving a sentence which is on average 127% of the minimum which is 120% of the federal average, many find themselves back on the streets with a large debt accumulated and limited prospects for an income sufficient to live on let alone spare resources to go toward retiring that debt.

It is the practice of county jails to charge booking fees for each suspect arrested and processed into jail.  So, whether you are ultimately found guilty or not you have started accumulating debts which will add up.  Many jails also charge inmates a daily rate.  Any money found on your person at the time of processing immediately goes toward paying the bill.  Any unpaid charges will follow you after your release.

In court you must have legal representation and if you can’t afford a lawyer on will be appointed to you.  What used to be provided as a pro bono service by a local attorney or through a public defender’s office at no charge now comes with a significant price. When you pay for your own attorney you must pay up front prior to having services rendered. If you are indigent and can’t afford an attorney they will provide you one and then bill you later.  In either case you are out thousands of dollars simply to “negotiate” a plea agreement and tens of thousands of dollars to fight your case in court.  Only those with significant financial resources can afford to mount a rigorous defense.

Upon conviction, as part of the sentence agreement you will receive a bill for fines, restitution, and court costs.  These will follow you to prison and under state law the MDOC will collect from your prison wages and any deposits to your trust account 50% of what you receive over $50 per month, and if you have multiple cases they can take up to your last $20 or $5 if there are federal charges involved.

To ensure that these costs are recouped, the MDOC has the power to seize your assets, and empty your bank accounts and investment savings -anything that is solely in your name.  They don’t have the ability to seize anything that is in a joint account or has a second owner named such as a deed to a house or car.

After paying off the fines, restitution, and court costs including court appointed attorney, the MDOC can then charge prisoners a daily rate for their incarceration, until the seized financial resources have been consumed.  Paying for your own room and board in prison does not entitle you to any extra privileges, no extra helping at chow, and no mint on your pillow.

In theory the prison chow hall diet is based on 2000 calories per day, but the reality is somewhat less than filling.  Most people will lose 10-20 pounds in prison.  Overweight people may lose 50 pounds or more as their fat reserves are tapped.  For many, physical activity such as weight lifting, rigorous workouts, and sports are part of a daily routine in prison to help the time pass quicker.  However, with increased physical activity comes a biological demand for more calories.  To supplement the necessary caloric intake the commissary does a booming business.  As this is not a basic necessity but is considered a luxury it comes with a steep price.  In county jail a package of Raman noodles may cost a dollar, in prison it costs $0.34, while in the world they go for 10-15 cents each.  With a captive market, prisoners pay exorbitant prices for low quality products.  Catalog vendors, for instance charge $20 for a pair of sweatpants and another $20 for a sweatshirt that you could buy at WalMart for $15 for the set.  Most of what is sold is seconds and irregulars, not high quality durable goods.

I found this picture of a prison TV for sale on an Etsy webpage.

Due to safety concerns TVs, radios, headphones, and other appliances approved for purchase must be made of clear plastic so that it is not possible to hide contraband inside.  However, some of the plastics used are of an inferior quality and are subject to breakage under conditions of routine usage. A small 13-inch flat screen TV that you probably can’t even buy on the streets will cost you $200.

They say “it sucks to be poor” but it is even worse to be poor in prison.  Since the majority of people in prison are from the lover socio-economic classes they and their families are the least able to afford it.  Prison didn’t use to be this way.  Society paid the cost of keeping the streets safe by paying to incarcerate the violent offenders.  Then the “war on drugs” sent a large number of non—violent drug addicts to prison.  Prison populations increased dramatically and so did budgets but not at the same rate.  Prison officials needing to do more with less have sought ways to charge for services that they previously provided for free.  When it’s time to leave prison, you have to turn in your state blues, the state will sell you a pair of khakis cut from the same uniform pattern for $50.  Something you wouldn’t even want from the Salvation Army store at half the price.

Dealing with the Quarter Master can be like dealing with a used car sales man.  If you lose a towel or a washcloth, they will charge you for them, luxury prices for third world quality.  Underwear and socks that are ill fitting and shoes that will ruin your feet.  Blankets and sheets are used until they are threadbare and then some.  To save money they reduced the number of sets of state blues from 3 pair to 2.  At some prisons laundry in only once a week, prisoners have to wear the same set of cloths for days on end.

The MDOC requires that prisoners either attend school or work.  Students are paid $0.58 per day for a 5-day school week.  Pay rates for the various jobs from porter to kitchen worker and wheel chair pusher to clerks and tutors vary significantly.  Most jobs pay less than $1 per day.  Depending on whether it is a 3, 4 or 5-day detail or has overtime available some earn as little as $10-15 a month while others may earn as much as $70-100.  For those very few who are fortunate to work for the Michigan State Industries (MSI) or Braille Transcription Service income rates may be higher still.  Pay rates for prisoners have been stagnate for years and in some cases have gone down significantly, such as when they eliminated bonuses for kitchen workers.

And the cost of living keeps rising so that what little buying power they had has eroded. Currently in the commissary prisoners are allowed to spend $100 per store every two weeks.  From this they must purchase their necessary hygiene and food items.  For an individual with no outside resources they must live on what little income they have earned from some type of hustle on the yard.  There is a great gap between the haves and the have nots.  A small bag of instant coffee costs $4, so for many it is the only luxury item they can afford and may preferentially choose that over soap and deodorant.

If you have need of medical service from Health Care there will be a $5 co-pay required for all routine services including teeth cleanings, eye exams, illnesses and non-job-related injuries.  If you don’t have the money in your account, service will be rendered but they will take the money out first when some shows up.  Additionally, over time the co-pay has been applied to chronic care visits for those with long-term and possibly life-threatening conditions that cause the person to seek medical services beyond the semi-annual exam.

For those who are unable to work or receive outside support, the Prisoner Benefit Fund (PBF) can provide $11 a month to those who meet the criteria for indigent status.  This is a loan that must be paid back when there are funds in the inmate’s trust account.  To qualify a person must have had no money in their account for the last 30 days.  The funds provided are for necessary hygiene only.

Health Care no longer provides basic medical pharmaceuticals such as aspirin for headaches, cough drops, cold pills, antacid, fiber laxative or hemorrhoid cream.  In the crowded living conditions colds and other illnesses spread rapidly throughout the population due to poor hygiene and sanitization.  Those unable to afford the remedies available for purchase in the commissary must struggle through their illness without symptom relief.

With the inability to earn money to pay for the basic necessities and large debts assessed by the courts most prisoners leave prison without any financial resources at all only to find out that the debt accumulation is not over.  On parole oversight fees and electronic tether monitoring fees can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars more.  Depending on the type of programing required by the Parole Board there may be additional program fees incurred.  All outstanding fees owed at the end of parole will be turned over to a private collection agency on behalf of the state.

The longer a person is on parole the higher the chances of violating that parole. Recidivism rates within the first 3 years of release from prison range as high as 75% for some categories of felonies.  Random drug and alcohol testing, random curfew enforcement checks, failure to comply with reporting and work requirements can all result in the revocation of the parole and send you back to prison.

For some the only hope to break this cycle is to “max out” on their sentence so that they can avoid having to deal with parole.  The result is that a person doing 2-10 years may be eligible for parole at their earliest release date (ERD) of 2 years may return to prison several more times due to parole violations and received a flop by the parole board and end up doing the full ten years on the installment plan.

For some this is not an option, since the tail on their sentences from multiple convictions have been stacked so that they have a potential 25 to life that they could theoretically have to serve in prison.  But in either case it sets up a revolving door whereby a person can expect to return to prison for some additional period of time.

To address the high recidivism rates and the critics accusations of warehousing, the MDOC does offer programming for some categories of felonies. Violent offenders may be required to take Violence Prevention Programming (VPP) or Thinking for A Change.  Sex offenders may be required to take Sex Offender Programming (SOP).  Those that have drugs or alcohol involved in their cases may have to take Phase 1 and Phase 2 Substance Abuse and additionally have to take ASAP/RSAP which are residential treatment programs.  Domestic abuse cases may have to take Bridges.  There are group classes, some of which are conducted by Psych Services.  Positive reports must be earned or else the parole board may not grant parole.  For those without education or with learning and/or psychological disabilities this can be a challenge.  Also, the mentality of so many prisoners is to resist authority, a “you can’t make me learn” mentality, or simply a person who likes who/what they are and doesn’t feel the need to change.  These programs will do little good to ensure a positive outcome and successful rehabilitation for these people. For some repeat offenders who have completed all the applicable programming and returned with a new case for the same crime no additional classes may be assigned, not even a refresher course.  The opposite is also a possibility, a person back on a parole violation may be required to complete the programming a second time even when the violation was on a technicality not a new conviction.  In either case all they can do is hope for the best with the parole board.  Just as it is true that you can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.  You can send a felon to prison but you can’t make him think.

Going to prison is costly both financially and in human terms.  Lost productivity which can never be recouped, lost years of family time including weddings, births, and funerals.  A debt to society that society refuses to accept payment for.  Trust that has been broken by both parties in the relationship but for which separation is not an option. For many in prison the only light at the end of the tunnel is the oncoming train.