Hope
By Jay Goodman
From my personal experience the last thing the Texas prison wants to give someone is hope. They talk a good game when they speak about rehabilitation, but if anyone ever did a study of the Texas presence from the start up until now, they would see that not much has changed. Yes, there has been changes as far as the way they do things, but that’s only because prisoners have filed lawsuit after lawsuit and won them in court. Even after the lawsuits were one in federal court, they’ll still try to get around doing whatever the court implemented.
As I have pointed out many times, Texas still does the same thing they’ve always done, the only thing different is their tactics. What most people never think about is that the majority of prisoners are going to be released from prison someday. I also believe that a lot of people don’t realize that most people in here are not cold-blooded killers. Most people who watch the evening news usually will see the worst of the worst being arrested, because the news channels like to report sensationalism.
I am not saying those people don’t exist in prison because they do, there are some really bad people in prison but most prisoners are not. I’d have to say that the majority of the men and women could be rehabilitated if given the right opportunity. Most are looking at their lives and hoping for something different, but most don’t have the basic skills on how to leave prison and survive in the real world. Once they leave prison in the realization hits them that they don’t know how to make it, they slowly start returning to the only life they’ve ever known. From what I see a lot of people come here and truly want to do better, but those thoughts quickly fade after they arrive to prison because of the way they are treated.
No one can be miss treated for years or decades and not suffer from some type of sociological issue. How can someone come here and face the things I’ve written about throughout this book and leave here a stable human being? A man who enters the Texas prison system not only has to face the brutal conditions of the present itself, but if he goes to one of the maximum-security prisons, more than likely he will have to turn into a monster to survive. I have heard many men say, “I am not the person you see standing before you.” Not many people understand this, but it’s the realization from someone that they are forced to live in such a way that it’s not who they truly are. For the people that have been treated like an animal, usually that is what they will become. It’s one thing to step inside the Texas prison system and have to deal with the loss of your freedom, leaving behind all of your family, dealing with the madness of prison life, and on top of all that, imagine having to survive all of the corruption that goes on inside a prison from the staff.
No matter which way you turn you are being forced to make decisions not based on rehabilitation, but on what’s in your best interest to survive. The most discouraging part is not necessarily dealing with the Craziness of prison life, but dealing with the people who run the Texas Department of criminal Justice. Because these people will abuse you in every way possible.
Remember what I’ve written about in past chapters about how they have set prisons up with weapons, drugs, had people assaulted or murdered. People begin to lose hope after living like this for years or decades.
Once a person loses hope, then there’s no way they can get rehabilitated. Once someone loses all hope then nothing matters at all in their life. I am sure there is a lot of people who will say we don’t deserve anything; we broke the law and now we have to face our punishment. Which is the truth to a point. But I am also certain that the majority of Americans would like to see prisoners leave prison better than when they came in. Who in their right mind wants to see the men and women leave prison and be worse than they came in? That of course would defeat the purpose of sending people to prison to begin with.
Every prison system across the United States is faced with choices that will determine the future of how our country ends up. And a lot of states have already implemented great choices when it comes to rehabilitation and has seen wonderful results. Texas loves to be known as this tough on crime state, they won’t under any circumstances take a different approach because the people who run the prison system are still trying to run it like they did 100 years ago.
The Puppetmasters know the system is broken but they are all right with that because rehabilitation is not what they want. Anyone with just over a little common sense can see that.
Can anyone imagine how you would feel if you lost all hope? Every person in the world needs help. Without help for tomorrow people stop living, they stop dreaming, they only live for the moment. And it’s these people that will continue to use drugs while they are incarcerated. As I sit here and look at what the Texas prison system has built, it’s hard for me to imagine why no one has said this is enough and came forward and expose this place for exactly what it is. But I believe a lot of that has to do with the type of people the state had to hire. And truthfully even win stuff has come to light such as the quota act was proven by a team and emails by the Houston Chronicle, there was no serious follow up by state officials or law-enforcement.
Yes, there was a lot of other cases that got thrown out at other prisons but it’s a long serious investigation was done, and they went back years before, it would easily proven the corruption at almost every prison at every level. Remember to keep this criminal empire thriving the corruption has to be at all levels. If there was only a few dirty guards the corruption would easily be proven and stopped. But when the corruption is that all levels from the guards, ranking officers to the wardens, it’s much easier to hide information or if something does come out like a quota act, some top official from the front office will come out and say we don’t allow this type of behavior from our employees, and we are going to look into this more to keep it from happening ever again. But of course, it’s just a smokescreen for the public in the newspapers.
And soon as it dies down it’s right back to the same old shit. So, for the people who come to prison who might be considering changing their lives, it’s usually forgotten about very quickly due to everything each person has to face inside this corrupt prison system. Again, hope is a very important tool that’s needed for anyone to change.
I also understand there’s prisoners who don’t want to change, and I can sympathize with the frustration of the staff who have to deal with them. But wouldn’t it be an easy solution to look at the prisoner’s institution record and see the ones who are trying to do good and separate these prisoners from the ones who are constantly into trouble? I mean it’s not like there’s not enough prisons to do this. By separating the prisoners who are not getting into trouble from the ones who are, it’ll be easier for these men to focus on change. Naturally if you would eliminate the frustration of dealing with the idiots, it’s going to give the ones who want to change hope. It should be the number one priority to help the men and women who came to prison and want to do good. After all, like I keep saying isn’t that what prison is all about, rehabilitation? And if you can tell a prisoner wants to change, separate him or her from the rest and give them every tool possible to help them along their path.
By putting these prisoners with the other prisoners who are striving to do better naturally they can help each other through the years, especially if someone becomes discouraged. Plus, some prisoners will be stronger in certain areas and the ones who lack will be able to learn from them. Every single person needs help to survive. Without hope no one would accomplish anything. People in prison need help like anyone else. If you give them hope you will change the entire course of their lives.
