Prisons are the worst things ever Pt2: The Quickening

So last time I covered Rape and touched on Gangs very slightly. Today I'm going to cover gangs in more detail, false imprisonment and some more general inhuman cruelties. I will also touch on how and where it can be much, much better.

Gangs in prisons are almost identical to gangs in the outside. They control illegal services and substances (sex, drugs, weapons) and grant a degree of protection to those under their wing. They have the same allure as in the real world, a chance at some kind of family, friends, even a shot at becoming someone. All of the last draws are obviously executed tenfold inside, where you have nothing and no one to help you. Loved ones stop coming, the rapes and beatings keep coming and you have nothing. This is also the reason for the huge number of born again's coming from prisons. It’s nice to know someone will always forgive you and be there for you when your entire world is now a never ending suffering.

As I mentioned before, Prison gangs were started on purpose. It started way back in the 60s. Shit was bad for government in the 60s; you had 'nam, massive social upheaval and all that danged rock music. This made things tense, Nixon and allot of other government officials predicted a mighty rising of the people and were preparing for it. Then in 1971 the Attica prison riot shook the world.

For those who don't know, Attica was a typical prison with typically horrific regard for basic humanity. The inmates were given one shower a week and one roll of toilet paper a month. As you can possibly envision, things in Attica were kinda tense for the prisoners. On the morning of the 21st of august a man named George Jackson was murdered by Corrections officers at Attica. A couple of days later, on the 9th of September, the inmates responded. 1000 of them took the prison by force and took many of the staff hostage. They released demands which included:

       •    Amnesty from the taking of the prison
       •    the rebuilding of Attica by prisoners or prisoner supervision
       •    Amplify minimum wage laws to new York prisons (meaning inmates would no longer be slaves)
       •    Educate the officers on the needs of inmates
       •    Proper medical treatment
       •    Proper dietary treatment.

Full list here

Following 4 days of negotiations the authorities agreed to 28 of the prisoners’ demands. Then the National Guard stormed the prison and caused, directly or indirectly, the deaths of 39 people.

So what does this have to do with Gangs? Well, in response to Attica prisons were changed radically. Young Mexican offenders were placed with older black inmates, with the foreknowledge that they would be abused and segregated. This is how the notorious Mexican Eme's were born. Before long the government had managed to force almost the entire prison system to segregate and war against themselves. This is not conspiracy shit; this is the cause of the widespread prison gang problem. Very quickly prisoners turned from protecting each other (stories tell of large gay men beating and killing prison rapists back in the day) to trying to kill each other daily.

So prison gangs were formed (or, if you want to be nitpicky, heavily encouraged) to help keep order in prisons. They are now a vital part of prison security, helping to keep understaffed, 200% capacity prisons controlled through violence. Combined with the massive increase in popularity of DART teams (SWAT and the like) any uprising or riot is quickly struck down.

Put all this together with the incredible media control prison wardens have (see the quite frankly evil Joe Aprico for an example of this. He is portrayed as a hero while kicking pregnant women and cooking his inmates in the sun.) and you have what is basically an unbreakable hold on prisoners. Attica simply cannot happen again.

So how are the gang's kept riled up? Well that much is simple. Beatings, cruel punishments, boots and batons. You could say a prison guard’s job these days isn’t to protect the inmates from each other but rather to force them on each other, create an atmosphere where violence, suffering and anguish are the norm. Force people into gangs; force them against each other so that they won't stand against the Machine.

On that, I swerve violently toward my next topic. One that should scare the piss out of you. False imprisonment and even false executions happen. They happen relatively allot. I apologize that I cannot give you hard numbers and facts for this, as I mentioned earlier the prisons maintain a press choke hold and any attempt to catalog the justice systems incredible failings are met with unhealthfulness at best, outright threats and Boots at the worst. Allow me instead to link to several stories that convey my point and with luck, convince you that even one wrongly state murdered human being is far, far too many.

I make this point so I can stress, the Machine will get you if it wants you. Regardless of how rich, white, connected, young or old you are. If it gets a sniff of you it will have you and it will never let go if it doesn't want to. I also make the point to quite obviously say the death penalty is a hopelessly evil punishment and anyone advocating it is...well they are a misinformed and poorly educated person that needs enlightening. Remember what I said last time, even the worst human beings are still humans. Yes even Joe Aprico. Love them. All of them.

Now earlier I said I was going to tell you all how and where it’s better. Well as it happens the US army already runs a perfectly good system. Inside there is very little fighting and very little animosity between guards and inmates, the gang problem is nearly none existent and the rape issue is also practically a non-issue. So why does the Army run one so well? Well essentially the Army took how the main prison system is run and did the opposite. Rotating guards to avoid burn out, the guards are just other soldiers doing a term, prisoners are well looked after and given adequate healthcare and help. In such an environment violence is not needed to keep the peace, and without the need for gangs to get what you need, they cannot grow.

Of course the more astute of you will note that to run all prisons like Army prisons would require a complete change in the system and an overhaul of the job of a Guard. This will never happen. The prison unions are far too strong and deeply set to achieve that. You may as well wish for the upheaval of capitalism or something.

Norway also runs incredible prisons, the closest I have found to my preferred ideal of a prison being more of a hospital than a cage. I found a very good article on the subject by a man who visited one. I found it rather balanced and the man does a good job of stating the facts. Have a read.

Well that’s everything I can think of on the subject. If you want me to go over anything leave a comment and I'll see what I can do. As I constantly say I realize no one reads this blog but I am hoping that perhaps one person reads this series and learns something. Education is the tool that we can use to fight the Machine.

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.)