Untitled-339 by Jay Goodman

As I sit in the United States, federal prison system, I have wondered what they hope to achieve? I also look at my
fellow prisoners and wonder what they hope to achieve? Most people in life have a plan, usually this plan starts while
we are young, and we pursue this dream in school by taking different courses, that will lead us toward our goal. But
this just doesn’t happen in here. Why I am sure most businesses hope that their business thrives, and to do so one
hast to have some kind of earnings report to track it’s progress. And naturally, if the people running this business
or company start to see their place isn’t prospering, they would do whatever was necessary to change the course of
their business.

I am assuming they would be smart enough to know if they didn’t, it wouldn’t be long, and their place would become a
failure. This is what the federal Bureau of prisons has failed to do. Their business is rehabilitating the men and
women in their care. But this business has not went so far downhill that they would have to fire everyone from the top
down to try and save this place. I mean the people who run the federal prison system are either stupid, or they don’t
care at all. What’s going on in these prisons. Like I said, in my last chapter, it’s because of these prisons,
prisoners are leaving 100 times worse than the day they were arrested.

I truly believe that a lot of the trouble is, there’s no accountability. Guards, ranking officers, wardens, and
everyone else seems to do whatever they want. I am sure they will try and put the blame on the prisoners, which some
of the blame does fall on them. But the rehabilitation doesn’t happen when you allow prisons to be run by gangs,
drugs, and corruption. If the federal government was serious about rehabilitation, they would take a look at how many
prisoners leave here and are arrested again. Which as it stands now, I’d say maybe 75 to 90% of all people that leave
here will be arrested again. But no one is asking what the hell is going on?

Like I said, before, if the federal bureau of prisons were serious, about changing the statistics, they need to put a
person in charge who would start holding these prisons accountable. There are dozens of people that work in the higher
ups at these prisons who don’t do shit. They are fully aware about what goes on inside these prisons, but have never
done anything to change it. They allow the gangs and the dirty staff to do whatever they want. If you put a man in a
prison where he is forced to live in the conditions I’ve been writing about, it’s almost impossible for him to change.
You don’t have to believe me, because the statistics speak for itself. Prisoners are forced to live under such brutal
conditions for years, or in most cases decades. And what ends up happening is they become desensitized to feeling
empathy. Human thought is creative. What we think about becomes what you allow to occupy your mind, and it forms the
reality of your life, and affects the whole world for generations to come. Thought determines action. The prisoners,
dominant thoughts are on survival. They will see, brutal, fights, stabbings and murderers. In my 17 years, I have seen
both officers and inmates beat and killed. I have lived through riots and being stabbed. I have lived weeks eating,
one peanut butter sandwich and one bologna sandwich. I have seen elderly prisoners who were dying from cancer, abused,
and left alone in a cell to die like they were less than an animal. A lot of these men had served in the military. I
have seen prisoner cells in Texas so hot that prisoners were literally cut to death. 10 prisoners died in a 26 day
span in 2011. And what did the prison system do? Put a half $1 million cooling system in for their pigs. While I truly
understand that prisoners have to answer for their crimes, the main focus should be rehabilitating the men and women
who come to prison. As it is now the majority of the people leaving or not fit to return back into society. Mentally,
most prisoners are living in a fantasy world, it’s almost like watching a soap opera at times. I know one man who has
over 25 years in prison and for him he is still stuck in a time that’s been left long ago.

Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life,
been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison,
they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90%
category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at.
Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the
senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and
helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of
his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe
this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will
get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local
news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and
police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has
been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending
almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine
his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another
thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America.
Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of
helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots,
spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out.
What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully,
my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can
see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher
rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with
rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation,
and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will
be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a
year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is
across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered.
Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life,
been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison,
they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90%
category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at.
Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the
senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and
helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of
his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe
this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will
get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local
news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and
police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has
been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending
almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine
his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another
thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America.
Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of
helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots,
spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out.
What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully,
my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can
see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher
rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with
rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation,
and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will
be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a
year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is
across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered.
Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life,
been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison,
they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90%
category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at.
Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the
senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and
helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of
his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe
this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will
get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local
news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and
police officers being murdered. Instead of helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has
been involved in gang life, been in riots, spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending
almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out. What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine
his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully, my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another
thing to look at. Everybody in our country can see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America.
Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher rate of people and police officers being murdered. Instead of
helping this man, and helping him have a chance with rehabilitation, he has been involved in gang life, been in riots,
spent a big part of his incarceration in isolation, and after spending almost 3 decades, in prison, they let him out.
What do you believe this man’s chances are he will be back? I imagine his chances are in the 90% category. Truthfully,
my guess is he will get arrested in less than a year. Here is another thing to look at. Everybody in our country can
see on their local news channels how bad crime is across America. Everyone sees the senseless killings and a higher
rate of people and police officers being murdered.

Well, once a person does decades in prison under these conditions, he will do whatever it takes to not come back. And
if that means killing a family or a police officer, so be it. I’ve seen a manly prison after serving 25 years. We were
friends for a very long time, and because he served a big portion of his 25 years in a maximum-security prison, I
could tell from our conversations he suffered from some type of PTSD. He told me the day before he left prison, “Jay,
if I really knew what was waiting for me 25 years ago, I would’ve made the police kill me. But no matter what happens,
I will never under any circumstances allow them to bring me back.�? Before and after he left prison, his mother would
come to visit me. Plus, I would call her several times a week, and talk with him. Both his mom and him told me, that
he had trouble trying to adjust back into society. His mom told me, “ he has trouble going out around a lot of
people.�? She told me, “He really has trouble sleeping, he will go to bed and get up in the middle of the night because
he had a dream about prison.�? he also had a difficult time trying to hold down a job. He will eventually become
depressed, he kept telling me when I called, “ I don’t know what to do, everything I’ve lived through in prison has
crushed my spirits.�? as hard as his mom and I try to talk with him, it doesn’t seem to help. Finally, after two years
of being released, I was looking at the news on TV and they showed a picture on the San Antonio news channel of Donnie
Eastman, it said, “the police seen, a man walking down the street, and a police officer pulled over to talk with him.
As a police officer got out of his car, Donnie pulled out his pistol and shot him several times, but the officer had a
vest on, thank God, and he also returned fire, and struck my friend once in the chest, and once in the head.�? Donnie
ran a mile and then died in a field. This is what I mean, when I say, “there is no type of rehabilitation inside these
prisons.�?

Donnie Eastman lived through stabbings, riots, brutal, Texas, summers, watching people die in their cells, and he was
in one of the worst prison systems in Texas for decades. But also, here was a man who was happy to leave prison, he
was loved by his family, and had a lot of support. But after 25 years, prison destroyed him mentally and spiritually.
No wonder the people leaving here keep coming back. I’m not saying we should feel sorry for Donnie, he deserves to go
to prison. But he also deserved a chance of being rehabilitated.