Where Is the Rehabilitation
by Jay Goodman
After 16 years now of incarceration, I continue to ask myself how a prison system like the ones I’ve been to can exist in the United States of America? Without a doubt our country is a great place to live. We have accomplished so many things that if I was to even try to write a book about it, that would be a book in itself. Why it’s my fault that I am sitting here and I take full responsibility for my actions. I still have to question why our country allows for prison system to be run in a dysfunctional way they do? I mean it’s not like I don’t know. Like I’ve said before “when I stepped inside the Texas prison system in 2005, it’s like I went back in time 100 years.” I have asked myself for 15 years how can this type of place still be allowed to operate in the 21st-century? And now here I sit inside this federal prison in Youngstown, Ohio and it’s even more corrupt. So corrupt that there’s probably more drugs in here than the ones on the streets. Men can fight, stab, rape, sell drugs, use drugs, and never worry about getting in trouble. It’s amaze me over the last 16 years to see how far technology has come. The whole world has changed, and it keeps changing so fast that what’s new today is old in six months.
All the new technology we have right here in the U.S. grows so fast that different companies fight constantly over who can outdo each other. In fact, I was reading in a book that it won’t be long until people start being able to go into outer space. Yet here I sit inside of a prison system that one would think that would be as far advanced as the country we live in. But look at the corruption I’ve written about over the years in Texas, now in just a short time I’ve been in federal prison it’s only showing me that it exists everywhere. I truly thought that surely our federal government would have a prison system that would be run a thousand times better than this. But if these few months are a sign of what yet to come, I already know I have a long road ahead of me.
As I have already said this place is able to keep what’s going on in here a secret because they won’t write any disciplinary reports. No paperwork, no trail for anyone to follow. If something happens all they have to do is deny it. It amazes me to look around me at everything going on, and at the people who run this place and no they allow it to happen because they don’t want to lose their contract to house federal prisoners. Also, they have to hide their drug organization. Naturally if they were to report all of the overdoses and problems They have with K-2, someone might start wondering how all these different types of drugs are getting inside their institution? The DA and FBI are flooding this place with young addicts getting arrested with small amounts of heroin and fentanyl, but the people who work inside here are selling drugs to hundreds of prisoners and have complete immunity. And just as I have said, because of their actions these young men have been beat, stabbed, and raped. I have asked myself many times when does someone say enough! When does someone look at this madness that’s been allowed to happen for decades and have enough courage to step in and revamp our prison system across this country? Since I was arrested in 2005, I have seen four presidents in office. It seems to me, that all of them want to see something change when it comes to our prison system. But it appears to me that nobody knows where to start. We have the greatest country in the world, but we also have the biggest prison population in the world. And for the life of me, I cannot figure out how no one in Washington has not asked the question how could this be? I have written countless of times I am beginning to wonder if the federal prison system has done the same. Because why in the world with the federal government want to arrest people that they know for sure are addicts? When I look at some of the people’s cases who are coming in here it’s hard for me to believe the government is wasting their time with these people. I do understand that our country has had a serious problem with opiates, especially with fentanyl. But what good is it to put people in a federal prison for decades for a small amount of drugs? This has caused real problems in here, look at what I’ve written about just in the short time I’ve been in the federal system. How can any of these people be rehabilitated under these conditions? These addicts come in here and all they do is continue to use. So, if a man gets 10 years, and he is getting high every day, what he learned? The whole idea of prison is to hopefully rehabilitate the men and women that come here. I mean, I’m assuming that’s what it’s for. After 16 years I keep looking for what I hear our state representatives and presidents have talked about which is rehabilitation. But where is this place? Because all I see is an abundance of drugs and criminals running every single prison I’ve been sent to. Is this word rehabilitation just a word politicians used to make themselves look good, or are they really ill informed? Because people are leaving prison worse than when they came in. Because most people who have decades in here are leaving prison scared mentally and emotionally. I can only imagine what’s waiting for me, one thing is for sure, I doubt if rehabilitation is part of it.
