A State of the Art Prison 2

I’ve just finished s chapter called State of the Art Prison System, and as I
was writing this, I couldn’t help but think of several different things. One,
why hasn’t anyone in Washington done this? Two, what has kept someone from
doing this?

I mean it’s not a secret how dysfunctional the Federal Prison System is,
especially in all of the United States Penitentiaries. These places are
infested with gangs, drugs, corruption and murder. When I first arrived at the
United States Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia, someone was murdered
within the first twenty-four hours, the warden then put the entire system on
lock down. The prison leaves the TV’s on during this time so the inmates can
watch from their cell doors. As a female guard walked past our door, my cellie
asked her if she would change the channel to a football game he wanted to
watch, her response was “I never touch the TV’s, the last person who did got
stabbed.�? I mean think about her statement, just how out of control is the
prison system that changing the TV station would get you stabbed? And a guard,
a person supposed to be in charge, is scared to touch the TV. I’d have to say
these types of prisons are totally out of control. This is not some new
information, everyone who works here knows what will happen if they touch the
TV, yet none of them do anything to change it. So, this behavior is accepted.

My next question is, why would any prison system allow this type of behavior
to continue? It’s like if a person has an infection, they understand that
there is a cure, but do nothing and allow the infection to spread. This is
exactly how the Federal Prison System is run. They understand there is an
infection inside their prison system, they know there is a cure, and have done
nothing but allow it to spread like a cancer. The sad thing is, there is a
cure, but for whatever reason the people running the system allow it to right
on running the way it always has. I have to ask myself, is the reason they
have allowed this to continue because the Federal Prison System has turned
into an industry like in Texas? Is it because they realize if real
rehabilitation begins and the inmates start making it, they will have to start
closing prisons? I’m sure the people in control of the Federal Prison system
will say that’s crazy, but now my question is, why is the prison system run by
gangs? Why are they flooded with drugs? Why haven’t they stopped all the
killings? Why haven’t they taken these 122 prisons and turned them into a
place of rehabilitation? I believe maybe part of it is because they think the
men and women in here are not worth it. Who cares if they kill each other or
waste their lives doing drugs? And I’m sure a big part has to do with the
behavior of the prisoners through the years. I will be the first in here to
admit that a lot of people in here don’t want to change, for whatever reason
they are lost in a fantasy world and like living this lifestyle. So, I do get
why the people in control would feel that way, but what about the men and
women in here that don’t feel that way? What about the thousands that are
doing good, not in gangs or sitting in here getting high every day? What about
the ones that want to change?

The men who go to the United States Penitentiary do not have a choice in doing
good. The first day a prisoner arrives in these prisons, they will be told by
whatever race they are how things are run. Let’s say it’s a white inmate, the
other white inmates will go to his cell and have a long talk with him. It will
be established what is expected of him and how he will have to conduct
himself. It will be made very clear that a day will come when he has to put
work in. Which means he will have to take a shank and stab another man to
death. Remember, this is not an option, he can’t say “I don’t want to kill
someone.�? If he isn’t ready to kill someone, he will be killed. Does the staff
understand what’s going on? Of course, they do, how do they not? This has been
going on forever in these prisons, yet nothing been done to stop it. The new
prisoners already know what they will have to do. So, like I have been asking,
how can a person come here and be expected to change? No wonder the recidivism
rate is so high. Most people that come to prison are not murders, but if they
go to a United States Penitentiary, they will be forced to become one. Let me
ask everyone reading this, since the people who control these Federal Prisons
know this, why haven’t they done something? Why would they allow people to be
stabbed and killed over and over without making any type of changes? Could it
possibly be they want it to happen? If someone was to ask the people in
control of the Federal Prison System this question, I am sure they would say
“of course we don’t want it to happen�?, then why wouldn’t something of been
done to stop it?

Remember this didn’t just start, this has always gone on. There is no logical
excuse to answer my question. The fact is the guards and administration allow
this to go on because they want it to go on. They already know who belongs to
which gang, they already know the different groups that don’t get along. They
know the people they shouldn’t stick into population because they will be
killed. Can you imagine being in control of a prison, someone shows up and you
can see from his paperwork that this man will be killed as soon as he hits the
prison cell block, yet you still allow him to go inside the prison? The prison
administration does this all the time. Now if people in the free world was to
allow someone to be murdered, even though they didn’t do it themselves, but
knew a certain person was going to be killed and did nothing to stop it, they
would be charged. If a thorough investigation was to ever be done, they would
quickly see that the people who are in control of these prisons have allowed
hundreds, if not thousands of men to be murdered. Of course, once again they
would say that’s not true.

Well allow me once again to use a famous gangster everyone knows to prove my
point. The old Irish gangster that was just captured by the FBI a few years
back, named Whitey Bulger. There have been numerous books and countless movies
done about this man’s life. Our entire country watched his capture play out on
every news channel and newspaper, his trial on TV for weeks. Everyone heard
how he had paid off the Boston police and worked with the FBI. When he showed
up at the United States Penitentiary here in Hazelton, West Virginia, everyone
knew exactly who he was. As I have written before, there are numerous things a
prisoner must go through before he is placed in population. When everyone
first arrives, the SISO must speak with all of the prisoners and are asked if
there is any reason they cannot walk the yard, basically it means were you an
informant? They ask this question because if a man is a sex offender or if he
was an informant, he will be a target for murder. So, when Whitey Bulger
showed up here, he had to go through a process before he was placed in a cell
block. Even if Whitey Bulger had told them he wanted to go into population, it
is the administration’s job to look at his file and see that there is no
possible way he can be placed in population. They were supposed to put him in
isolation until they found a place to send him. There was no possible way for
the administration to not know who Whitey Bulger was, but they allowed this
90-year-old man to go to a cell block. I really shouldn’t say allowed, because
in all actuality the administration sent him to be killed, and killed he was
the very first day.

The Lieutenant, the Captain, and the Warden all lost their jobs, but were any
charges filed on these men? Of course not. These types of killings happen all
the time, but nothing is ever done to stop it. If the man wasn’t a worldwide
known gangster, I already know for a fact the Lieutenant, the Captain and the
Warden would not have lost their jobs. No wonder the prisoners are leaving
prison worse than the day they arrived. This is why I wrote there needs to be
a state-of-the-art prison system. Please know I am not talking about prisoners
living in luxury, I am talking about a prison system where the goal is to
actually rehabilitate the men and women that are in here, a prison system that
is not controlled by gangs or an administration that would allow prisoners to
be killed.