The following was written by a prisoners in a southwestern prison system
. It is copied with the permission of Media Bypass Magazine where it was published in the August 1997 issue.
questions? 812/477-8670 (Media Bypass)
They solicit articles written by prisoners, but are having a hard time getting their
magazine into the prisons. I will be sending three articles from their magazine,
one concerning their illegal censorship.
Fifty years ago even less, convicts were for the most part dangerous criminals. A prison guard had to be a tough, surly guy, able to handle any situation that might arise from keeping dangerous men captive. For in those days, most people went to prison for actually harming other people, murderers and rapists and child molesters included. At the very least they took what was not theirs to take from others in society, and thus were removed to make the world a safer, better place. So be it.
By the 1960s, things had begun to change drastically with the advent and strict enforcement of laws meant to protect society from itself. The moral codes of others became "the law", and a new breed of "crimanal' (who had harmed no one with the possible exception of himself> was born. People were sent to prison for victimless crimes, especially involving drugs or possession of firearms, as in my case. While crimes against "the state" (the supposed victim) were punished, real victims were produced in the form of a prisoner's family and loved ones.
With this new breed of so-called "criminal", a new inductry began to emerge. An industry creating hundreds of thousands of government jobs that the meekest of men and even women could fill, becuase this new breed of criminal wasn't violent or particularly dangerous. Most simply had addictions to chemical substances or just used these substances recreationally and fell "victim" to purveyors of the New Morality, who decided while they sipped coctails and smoked cigarettes (their drugs of choice) that marijuana and cocaine use called for depriving others of their liberty.
Beyond those imprisoned for drug offenses, the drug laws artificially inflate the cost of these products which has in turn has (sic) driven many an addict to steal, get caught and likewise land in prison. But in every case, the root of the problem was sociological. The bid to cure or rehabilitate a person whould seem a preferable therapy to putting people behind bars. Don't fool yourself into thinking incarceration is rehabilitation. Nothing could be further from the truth! The "powers that be" count on recidivism to make their house payments and put food on the table. All at the cose of the families of these unfortunate "victims", and "victims" we are, "victims" of government crime perpetuated over and over to keep money in their pockets. This is nothing but human warehousing!
If the "victim" is lucky enough to one day get out, he is expected to immediately be a productive citizen despite the stigma his ex-felon status places on him. Never mindthat his families have been without him, usually creating more of a hardship than his drug use or addiction, and that society now doesn't trust him enough to give him a decent job.
Yes people, the prison indistry is alive and well in America today. Hundreds of thousands of state and federal government employees depend on the misery of others for the paychecks they happily spend. But let me back up one sentence before I go back to my cell and fade into the obscurity of federal prisoner No. xxxxx-xxx. The prison industry is alive in America but far from well.It is a sick industry more evil and dangerous than most of its "victims", the inmate and his family. And it is coming soon to a loved one near you if you don't stand up against it now!
Just wait and you will see.
The views above DO NOT necessarily mirror my own.
[NOTE: Nor the owner of this website...Ish]
Typos or deletions are strictly my errors, and not the errors of the prisoner or Media Bypass.
Ann
Second Article from Media Bypass