It’s Hamlet for God’s Sake!

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 2015.

 

            Hamlet, one of William Shakespeare’s great tragedies, is being taught in the college British Literature class this semester. Hamlet, for those who don’t know, is the story of a young prince. He’s away at college living it up when he’s visited by a ghost. The ghost tells him, “Your Uncle has murdered your father – the King – and has taken his crown. And, he’s doing your mom. You hear me Hamlet, this guy’s taken your legacy and is screwing your mom. Go home and settle the score.” So Hamlet goes home, only he doesn’t “take care of business.” He dithers and dawdles and people die. At the end, everyone is dead, the crown is empty and a Danish king strolls in and takes the kingdom. The themes, the tragedy that is Hamlet, are as old as man. Perhaps that’s why this – and so many other Shakespearian dramas – still flourish. They speak to the failing that is the human experience.

            The instructor is a wonderful woman who speaks with a Southside Virginia twang. Her knowledge of British literature is astounding! She’s forgotten more than I could possibly learn. Add to that, she’s a Dickens’ groupie. I love Dickens’ novel Bleak House. It is an indictment of the British legal system. I first read it in law school and have reread it another three or four times. The students – all whom have experienced the real workings of our justice system – rip and tear through Dickens’ fictitious Jarndice v. Jarndice Chancery case. Literature - themes about the human condition and life – real life – is presented and discussed and learning takes place.

            But this isn’t about British authors. No, this is about the policies present at facilities like this to stunt – or even stop – learning. I once thought it was out of ignorance that policies were mistakenly in place which effectively interfere with education. As I watch – and daily live in here – taking in the sheer stupidity of procedures that harm the education of inmates, I have concluded it’s deliberate. Ignorant, uneducated released felons come back. That keeps places like this is business.

            Hamlet. To get books, movies, or school supplies in here almost takes an act of Congress. Weeks before classes begin instructors have to send lists of “materials” they wish to bring in. The British Lit books – five separate texts plus six videos/DVDs were dropped off “up front” to be “examined.” Who does the examining? An “operations” director who has never read Shakespeare, or Dickens, or Hardy. Three or four days later the materials make their way to the school with a cursory email sent from the security chief (another “senior” staff member who lacks a college education). “All materials are permitted,” he writes.

            Hamlet is approved, only the books are on order. So the British lit instructor brings them with her (and a copy of the email from security) when she shows up to teach. “Can’t bring them back without operations OK.” Three more days and Hamlet sits up front, Hamlet for God’s sake, one of the great works of literature, while everyone waits on the operations manager to “complete her review.”

            And it isn’t just Hamlet. The biology instructor can’t get non-alcohol based lens wipes in to clean microscope lenses and slides. She wasn’t allowed to bring Gatorade in for use with a DNA experiment even though officers buy Gatorade in the visitation room.

            Worse, try coming in here to teach. Try being a minister or lawyer arranging a “special” visit. Citizens – taxpayers – are subjected to demeaning treatment and disrespect. A college professor regularly has to wait to gain access to the facility – even though they know she’s coming out here at that time – because the “check in” CO is on lunch break.

            “Why does the college need its own building?” That was the “housing manager” overheard recently. This guy takes pay from education aides who are tutoring in the buildings while making sure his re-entry elders get full pay. Chief of Security? He regularly tells staff how much he can’t stand the college program – forget how all the men in college pay their own way (name any other DOC program where men pay “street prices” for a program? There isn’t any.)

            How can this happen? How can the people paid by the taxpayers to rehabilitate and release offenders back to society to live as law-abiding citizens be so openly hostile to the single best deterrent to recidivism – higher education? Perhaps someone should ask DOC Director Harold Clarke.

            Harold Clarke’s hiring to run Virginia DOC came with great public fanfare back in 2010. Mr. Clarke spoke candidly about his Christian faith. Back then, I took Mr. Clarke at his word. I wrote and asked him – as a Christian, what kind of DOC Director would Jesus be? Five years later, I can tell you my understanding of the Savior is He wouldn’t run this place like Mr. Clarke does.

            And the politicians who continue to rubber stamp DOC budget requests – how do they continue to do the same thing over and over without even leaving Richmond for a day and seeing what they are paying for?

            “The Buck Stops Here.” Virginia needs you, Harry Truman. It’s time to hold those in charge of this broken, incompetent, bias system accountable.

            One last thing: it’s Hamlet, for God’s sake. I have been told – off the record – on more than one occasion to “be careful. They read what you write.” And, I think back to a day in August 2009 in a sweltering, roach infested receiving cell. My cellie – 24 years old and with a 70 IQ, doing 76 years for murder. He had threatened to kill me that day because in his eyes, I’d done the unthinkable: I stood for count.

            He said to me that day, “You think you is better than me.” I said no, “I think, no I know, I’m better than this place.” And I stood there and thought if I’m going to die, it’s better to go out as a decent man. I remember Atticus Finch’s words in “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

            “Before I can live with other folks, I’ve got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn’t abide by majority rules is a person’s conscience.”

            It’s Hamlet, for God’s sake! And, it’s time for DOC to give a damn about education and truth.