Prisons are the worst things ever. Pt 1.

I remember when I was younger I was in an RE class. RE stands for Religious Education and is compulsery in alot of schools in this country. Its sort of a hybrid between a "Learn about Religion" and "Learn about Politics an stuff" class, where we'd learn about immigration, different cultures and various different issues with the underlining "And THIS is what THIS religion thinks about THIS topic". Topics included Abortion, Women's rights, Homosexual rights and, in my case, the death penalty.At the time, I was a dumb kid and thought an eye for an eye was a perfectly acceptable idea. More recently, as I've matured I suppose, I've realised not only is the death penalty wrong, the entire system is fundementaly wrong.

(A quick aside. I will be talking mostly about US prison systems, The UK has significantly better prisons but they still have all the same problems, just in a much much lesser regard.)

Now, I realise this is a slightly Out There view point, but hell if the seceret police start rounding people up I'm probably already going to disappear so I might as well air any "nonstandard" feelings I have while I'm here. I believe all Prisons as they stand should be abolished. Thats slightly hyperbolic, In an optimal world I'd simply say I want them to reform and allow prisoners the basic human rights everyone in the world deserves and allow an enviroment where rehabilitation can occur. This can not currently happen in any of the US prisons at all.

I'm going to throw a number out there, 100,000. That is the number of rapes in prison every single year. There are half a million minutes in a year. The average time a rape lasts is around 10 minutes. That means that chances are right now someone is being raped in prison. That persons' life is being destroyed. This treatment they are reciving RIGHT NOW will force them into a cycle of self destructive behavour, they will commit more crimes when they finanlly get out, become cold to their wife or girlfriend, eventually blocking out all emotional support and in the end will likley purpetrate the cycle again. And thats after he gets out of prison the first time. If.

Theres the argument that the deserve it, knew it was coming, shouldn't have commited the crime. I think thats the weakest argument against this. If you seriously believe its justifiable to ruin someone's entire life, and chance at reform, regardless of the crime then you are a broken human being. Lets consider what prison is supposedly for shall we;

Prison is supposed to be a place where the guilty can be held, reformed and pushed to become a hard working contributing member of society. This is supposed to be achived through a series of programs, workshops and help sessions.

In reality, prison does not even begin to provide the correct enviroment for this. Prisoners do not have access to basic health care, most do not get simple counciling, all are under the threat of serious violence at all times from gangs and the guards. Basic excorsise is limited, social interation even with other prisoners is held as a carrot infront of them. This is not primarily because of the prisoners. This is policy. The main problem in a prison is commonly seen as Gangs. This is true on some levels, this however ignores the fact that gangs are essencially an insitutionized policy. The Machine actively encuraged gangs and gang violence as this keeps prisoners fighting each other, as so long as they do that, the Machine can feed.

Prisons are supposed to be, if nothing else at all, Safe. In reality the prison system is a Machine. A machine expertly designed to break, eat, reguritate and eat again. It feeds upon people and suffering and hate and every single time a person is raped (like right now.) or beaten or locked in solitary for years regardless of guilt, they become a part of the machine, Either the food that feeds it or, should they pass on this pain and hate, one of its bloodied talons, a tip of its grinding teeth.

I've addressed rape and gangs briefly here, theres much much more to go over, such as the coruption within the system, the guards, the torture, false imprisonment and other wonderful topics. I will get around to them I promise. For now I leave you with a story.

Chris J. got gang-raped in prison today. He needs surgery to fix his rectum, and probably other medical attention for the rest of his injuries but he's probably not going to get it. He knows this and is thinking about the pain his rectal scarring is going to cause him for the rest of his life. He laid in his bed for a little while covered in semen and his own blood thinking about AIDS. Since shower time has come and gone, he cleaned himself up with the water in the toilet, he also sat on it for a long time trying as hard as he could to evacuate all the semen out of him. His phone card was stolen as punishment for fighting back and he doesn't have any money in his account to call anyone on the outside, so he's just trying to deal with it on his own. Many inmates and guards are already making fun of him and discussing prices for having a go at him within his earshot. After TV time he's going to have to try and sleep in his cell with 2 other guys who ain't trying to hear his sob story and may even have been involved in his attack.


The pictures of his wife and kids were taken as punishment with promises to defecate or ejaculate on them while a different man was inside him as further punishment for fighting back. He's been clean for 9 months but that heroin would make all this pain go away for just a little while. Chris is more likely than not to go back to the heroin.


Chris will never be able to fully express the pain and rage caused by his rape even to a professional; and he's definitely not getting insurance which covers the help he needs when he gets out. This psychological trauma will have a severe impact on his ability to have healthy relationships on the Outside- out in the World- and will likely lead to bad arguments with his wife resulting in domestic violence. The effects his mental state has on his kids will be profound and probably irreversible. They might grow up in the sort of state in which prison is a very real possibility. When they find out what happened to dad how will they react?


His pain and anger will manifest itself in all sorts of ways and he might go off on some taxpayer in a convenience store or seriously injure someone who cuts him off in traffic. When that happens Chris will go back to prison and there will be similar ripple effects on his victims. Even if that doesn't happen remember Chris uses heroin to suppress his pain and will likely be re-arrested on a drug charge or a property crime he did to get heroin money.


Since there are no secrets in prison when Chris returns it will already be known he is a bitch who likes it in the ass, and he will have to become someone's sex slave. Staff will encourage this. Or he can stab somebody to try get a new rep. If he wins the knife fight & isn't killed outright, the person he kills has loved ones & family members who will become enraged at this, and the violence will continue.


What happened to Chris happened to 200 people today if you go by Alberto Gonzales' DOJ. If you go by HRW it happened to more than 400 people. This does not include juveniles in programs like Nihilanthic posts.


This is every day, every state. There are no exceptions. Going by HRW's numbers it's one Chris every four minutes.


You could be the next Chris, no matter how white you are- no matter how rich your family is. The Machine cares not. It must feed and It will feed.


And the Machine will never be satisfied.

(A huge chunk of this info and the story here comes from a thread on SomethingAwful.com by the fantastic HidingfromGoro, a man who has seen these injustices first hand and held many of the victims of the system. Read more of his stuff at the wikilink in the article.)