Untitled-330 by Jay Goodman

There are a lot of people in prison that do absolutely nothing with their time, but it’s the same with the prison
system itself. I have a good idea why the recidivism rate is so high and a lot of it has to do with the way the
Federal Bureau of Prisons operate. While it is an absolute fact the prisoners are responsible for their own actions,
but the way the system is set up, there is not much hope in any kind of serious rehabilitation. I am sure there will
be many who disagree with this, the statistics really speak for themselves. There is a reason the recidivism rate is
high and it’s because the prison system is run terribly. While it is up to each man to change, it’s also up to the
prison system to ensure that every person has the opportunity to change, but that just isn’t happening. In fact, the
prison system as a whole is set up so that the men who leave here are worse off than when they arrived. This is
something the Federal Bureau of Prisons is well aware of, but have done absolutely nothing to change it. In my mind
they have not only failed the prisoners, but the American people as well, because by not giving the prisoners the
tools to change, the prison system has unleashed these men back into society with no form of rehabilitation
whatsoever.

Now let’s take a look at what prisoners do face in the Federal Prison System throughout their stay. Upon arriving,
prisoners are greeted by whatever race they are, if you are white, the whites will come to your cell within a minute
or two after you get to your cell block. They will ask you where you are from, why you are in prison, who you run
with, which means what gang are you in. Now most places in the Federal Prison System, the staff will tell the other
inmates why you’re in prison before you even get to your cell block. If you have worked for the federal government,
meaning you helped the police or you helped the federal DA, you are subject to be killed as soon as you arrive. If you
aren’t killed, you will likely be beat and stabbed. What’s crazy is it’s the prison guards or someone in the
administration that give this information to the prisoners. So, what they did was green light the gangs to murder this
man. Now if you are good, which means you were not an informant, these gangs will run down their rules on how you must
conduct yourself. When they are finished, they will tell you that there will come a day you will have to put some work
in, which means that someday you will have to stab someone to death. This is not optional, you can’t say I don’t want
to, because when that day comes, you will either do it or they will kill you. This is how all of the United States
Penitentiaries are in our country. Has the federal prison system done anything to put an end to this? Absolutely not,
in fact they encourage this. Why? Because the United States Penitentiary here in Hazelton, West Virginia is on lock
down around nine months a year or more and so are the others around the United States. The prisoners being in their
cells twenty-four hours a day there is nothing for the guards or the administration to do. The food is already
prepackaged, so all the guards have to do is open a slot on each door and hand the prisoners two boxes. The rest of
the day the employees sit in their offices and watch movies on their computers. Now the prisoners are wasting away in
these cells twenty-four hours a day for around nine months or more a year. They get two showers a week and they are
being starved. They understand what this type of treatment does to prisoners, long term isolation causes many
sociological and mental problems. I have seen first-hand the damage it causes to men like depression, anxiety,
suicidal thoughts, antisocial and many other types of sociological disorders. I have witnessed first-hand the men who
stopped talking to everyone, even their families. They would sit in their cells and talk to themselves. I would hear
them having long conversations with the people they hated. These people have so much anger inside of them it’s crazy.
A lot of these men have lived like this for decades and to think like they have all of these years is normal to them.

Since the day they have arrived in prison they have had to deal with the reality of prison life, which has absolutely
nothing to do with rehabilitation. The reality of prison is gangs, drugs, violence and abuse at every level from the
guards, ranking officers and the wardens. Every single one of them knows what’s going on in here, they allow the
things that go on to happen. So how can anyone truly be rehabilitated living like this for decades? The prison system
is set up to destroy the prisoners mentally, to turn every single person who comes here into lifelong residents and
they do a damn good job. Most prisoners have a certain mind set when they arrive to prison. They believe that there is
some kind of code that prisoners are supposed to live by in here and even though a lot of these men will eventually
see this code does not really exist. They will still try to push it, which is exactly what the people who control this
place want. They not only want it, but they have pushed this way of thinking upon all the prisoners. It’s very common
to hear guards make a statement like this dude is a chomo, which means he is a child molester. While I understand one
might not like another person’s charge, I see the truth why the guards push this, they want someone to beat this guy
or even better to kill him. Why? Because they can lock us down, but you would be surprised at how many people will
listen to the guard, I have seen guards lie about why someone is in here just because they don’t like him. You will
hear certain prisoners push paper work, which means why each prisoner is in prison. I can’t help but laugh to myself
because most of the time the prisoner they are talking about is a dude fresh off the bus or some youngster that is
nothing but a dope addict. From my point of view, I don’t give a shit why another man is in prison, but let’s look
from a different point of view, I see people in here who live, eat and breathe this paper work. Yet there are men all
around us who lie, steal, get into debt because they are using drugs, bringing heat on our cell block and getting us
locked down, one man showed himself to a female guard, got us locked down for days. A lot of people thought it was
funny, another man stole something from the commissary window which kept our entire cell block from making commissary,
of course that was ok by his gang. I mean the shit I have seen people do all around me is endless, but none of these
paper work pushers say anything about all this other shit.

Every day people are doing scrupulous stuff, but none of that matters because the only reason paper work is even
bright up is because these idiots need to try and do something to get people to look at them as some type of stand-up
guy or to try and make themselves feel good because a of these dudes have spent their entire lives in and out of
prison, they have never had anything or done anything. They are so freaking stupid, they’re not even smart enough to
see how the people who run this place are in the background smiling and laughing at their dumb asses.