Classification Blues

Every inmate in the DOC system is basically nothing more than a number, or a series of numbers. Numbers mean everything in prison.



When I arrived at DOC receiving in August of 2009 I was immediately given a six digit number and told I needed to “use it on all transactions”. That meant: calls-press in your ID number; order commissary – write your number on the sheet; have a request, an inquiry, a grievance? Need to see medical? Place your number on the form.


By November ’09, DOC came out with “new numbers” – a seven digit number to replace your six digit one. “Begin using your seven digit number on 11/2” the memo announced. Problem was, the phones weren’t converted by that date so a second memo came out – “use six digit for phone; use seven digit for all other transactions”.


By the first of December the phones were converted. But, not the accounting system. So, inmates use their six and seven digit numbers for accounting requests. We still use our six digit number for school (Department of Corrections Education), but we now use our seven digit number for commissary. Who knows when DOC will get it fixed. They prove, day in and day out, the old adage “anything that can be done half-assed can be done by the government (there are a couple of Obama digs I could slide in here now, but I’ll let the reader fill their own in)”.


Numbers matter. Every guy talks in numbers: “I get out 6-1-11” (I wish!); “I earn at 4 1/2 .” “Really? I’m under the old system. I earn 30 for 30” (good time credit). Guys still under parole – pre 1995 convictions earn good time at various rates up to 30 days good time for every 30 days served. Inmates convicted after 1/1/95 – like me – can only earn a maximum of 4 ½ good time days per month).


Then, there is your security level. DOC has 4 security levels (there is fifth level, but that is reserved for the worst of the worst, like guys who kill corrections officers while in prison). Level 4 inmates are maximum security. They are “under the gun” (officers patrol the catwalks with loaded weapons). I’m at a level 1 to 2 prison. My classification (based on categories of violence; age, education, employment history) is 1, 1 – security level 1, good time credit level 1 (4 ½ days per month).


DOC is under a severe budget crunch. No wonder. They abolished parole so inmates now stay incarcerated substantially longer. Add to that judges who sentence with significant years. Then, DOC has been forced to close a number of facilities the last few years (8 at last count) with another level 2 and two level 1 prisons slated for closing in this budget cycle. You have a system beginning to collapse under its own weight.


What does DOC do – beside spend over $27,000 a year just to keep an inmate locked up (after all, as DOC Director Gene Johnson has finally acknowledged, the $1 billion DOC budget is insufficient to provide rehabilitation programs)? They decide each week to transfer level 2 inmates – well behaved, decent guys, to other level 2 institutions. There’s no rhyme or reason to who moves. Corey – enrolled in college under a federal grant program and working as a teacher’s aide – is on the transportation list. Yet, other guys who don’t work, don’t go to school, aren’t on the list.


It’s all the luck of the numbers. Your life in prison, every movement, is nothing but numbers. Cost is irrelevant (it is expensive to move an inmate). Count every inmate six times a day; make sure every bed number is used.


Viktor Frankl wrote that the Nazis reduced every prisoner to nothing but a number. Thank God we’re not like the Nazis – or are we?