State of Human Nature

It is a very dreary Tuesday in January and the Virginia General Assembly is in session.  I was off work today – Adult Basic Education placement testing was being conducted – and it poured.  They finally called rec and in a cold January rain I went outside to run and blow off steam.  News from the General Assembly was not good for felons.  I needed to get my thoughts together.  And, like so many other times when things just didn’t seem to make sense, I went out to run.

A little background.  “BP”, “before prison” that is, I thought I had a pretty good understanding of human nature.  I confidently told myself and others that I understood people.  It was easy to see the world in black and white, right versus wrong, good versus evil.  And, I had an opinion and knew what was correct about almost anything.

Then came jail, and divorce, and prison.  I found myself at one of Virginia DOC’s receiving facilities in the hot, humid days of August.  For almost five months I stayed there and I survived – barely.  I saw things in that stew of violence, filth, and despair that forever altered my self-aggrandizing sense of my knowledge of human nature.

One day, I sat locked in my cell; the temperature reached over 100°; even the roaches and ants who invaded my eight by eight rat hole moved slower.  I watched in horror as above me, on the third tier some sixty feet above the concrete floor below, a man dangled.  His legs and arms were wrapped tightly around the metal railing as he was repeatedly punched and kicked by two other men who were intent on seeing him fall to this death.

No officer was in sight.  It was not the first beating I’d seen at that place and as I processed the scene I couldn’t help but think I was in hell.  And, I wondered, does anyone really care.

Each night at the receiving center, as I lay down trying to fall asleep I would, in my prayers, tell God I couldn’t take anymore.  Yet somehow, I managed to get through the next day.  During those difficult nights there was a young inmate on the first floor.  He was mentally challenged.  Each night his medication would wear off and he would scream in the dark “Jesus help me.  I’m scared.”  His screams would be met with derision and laughter.

I carry those and literally hundreds of other stories like that with me.  What they taught me surprised me.  I came out of that experience convinced that the only saving we as human beings have from our most basic instincts is the capacity to show mercy and overcome evil with kindness.

The Virginia General Assembly.  Governor Robert McDonnell proposed that Virginia join forty-eight other states in automatically restoring voting rights to nonviolent felons upon completion of their sentences.  Currently, only Kentucky and Virginia deny felons automatic restoration of rights.  Less than a week after the conservative Republican Governor surprised political watchers on both sides of the aisle with his proposal, the Republican controlled House of Delegates rejected the Governor’s plea.

I accept that reasonable people can have different opinions on the application of punishment for crimes.  But, comments made by various Republican Delegates showed a complete lack of understanding of the nature of imprisonment and the failure of Virginia’s corrections paradigm.

Prisons do not correct.  They are horrible places.  And, for the vast majority of inmates, a stay in prison does more harm than good.  No legislator should pass judgment on the merits of any released felon until they’ve witnessed firsthand what passes for incarceration.

Each year, inmates are murdered, raped, beaten and extorted, all under the eyes of the officers charged with creating a safe, rehabilitative and humane environment.  Each year, the Department of Corrections receives over one billion dollars to mostly house the incarcerated in horrendous conditions.  No matter what you think of their crimes, they are still human beings who deserve basic human decency.

Place a man or woman in prison, deprive them of basic freedoms, subject them to violence, filth and then expect that they will magically transform – not hardly.  Then, on release tell them they are not welcomed back to society except as second-class citizens denied the right to vote and subject to warrantless searches.  It is a toxic mix destined for failure.

The General Assembly, the citizens of Virginia, can do better.  Dostoevsky understood it.   A society is judged by its treatment of its prisoners.  More importantly, people of faith are called to show compassion, mercy, and forgiveness even to those who harm us.  That is real corrections.  That’s what’s lacking in the current debate in Richmond.