Reaction Inside

Last Saturday night around 10:00 pm, as we waited for our final standing count of the day, news broke that the jury had reached its verdict in the George Zimmerman murder trial. As we waited for the officers to whistle us to the ends of our bunks, almost every set of eyes was focused on the decision. In a place like this, where every man in here has dealt with court, and conviction, and sentencing, following trials is as natural as following football. Throw in the racial overtones the case presented and you couldn’t find a man who didn’t have an opinion. Hear the jury foreperson say out loud “not guilty” and you could feel the collective tension in the building rise.

           

It was an interesting next few days and it gave me a chance to analyze my own thoughts on the matter. As with most circumstances in here, my opinions - always asked for - somehow managed to upset both sides of the argument. I guess that means I’m on to something.

            

Does Trayvon Martin’s death have broad social implications? It shouldn’t, at least not any more so than the tragic death of any other young person in this country from random gun violence. The leading cause of death for black teenage boys in this country is shootings. Trayvon Martin is just one of too many young black men who will not see adulthood because of our nation’s obsession with guns. I’m not disparaging the Second Amendment. The fact is, in this country getting shot is as American as apple pie.

            

Trayvon Martin didn’t have to die. Unfortunately, too often we act in a careless, impulsive manner. We put a course of events in motion which soon take on a life of their own. We are at the mercy of the situation we began. It’s one of those laws of human nature as applicable as gravity: our actions have consequences. It’s my story of prison and divorce. It’s George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin’s story as well.

            

Trayvon Martin had every right to walk from the “7-11,” back to his father’s apartment by way of those public streets in that neighborhood. No one has a right to profile a person legally walking the street because he happens to be young, black, and wearing a hooded sweatshirt.

            

The irony of profiling young, black men in white neighborhoods is they aren’t the ones committing the crime there. Black on black crime is far more prevalent than black on white. It is simply prejudice fostered by ignorance that makes white people recoil when a black teen walks through their neighborhood.

            

So Trayvon Martin was legally entitled to be where he was. But, so was George Zimmerman. Zimmerman is the kind of neighbor we all want. He cared about the area he lived in. He knew the people who lived around him. He volunteered to keep the neighborhood safe. How many people, after coming home and finding their home burglarized haven’t wished they had a neighbor who watched what was going on and was willing to call the police? Zimmerman also had a right to carry a gun.

            

Both participants had every right to be where they were and behave as they did. Isn’t that usually how things start out before they go awry? The race baiters are wrong. This isn’t about “open season” on young black men. There’s simply no evidence that Zimmerman was motivated to act by any racial animus.

            

There are problems facing young black men. They kill each other at alarming rates. They are imprisoned at significantly higher levels than whites or other racial groups. But, is it color or class that matters? I keep telling the guys in here that black college graduates have the same low unemployment rate as white college grads. Unfortunately, a significant percentage of black families are one parent families. There is a direct correlation between one parent families, poverty levels, and a lack of higher education. Class, it seems, matters more than race.

           

I see it in here every day. The young black men I share this prison pod with almost all came from broken, single parent households. They knew more people who’d gone to prison than college. And, the crimes they committed: drug dealing, robbery, murder, almost always victimized other black citizens. No, Trayvon Martin’s death wasn’t about his color.

            

But it also wasn’t about self-defense. In here you know what they call a grown man who follows teenage boys: a predator. Zimmerman should have left the kid alone. And more parents, hindsight being twenty-twenty, would tell their kids to watch out for a “perv” on the street.

            

No one knows what led to the altercation between those two. And another senseless death resulted; and two families are forever changed. The prosecutors sought fame by grandstanding their case. They fed into the crowd’s call for blood, for retribution. The talking heads used both these men as caricatures of their biased views.

            

What are we left with? We see the words of a woman, Trayvon Martin’s mother, who after the jury returned its verdict simply stated “Lord, I lean on you in my darkest hour.” The next morning she attended church.

           

I’m not sure what justice is in a tragedy like this. But, I know what grace is. And grace matters more.

Major Changes

They brought in a new chief of security this week, a new big hat, a new Major.  DOC has a weird facility operations system.  A warden sets policy for the compound with day to day help from an assistant warden.  Third in charge is the Operations Director who runs everything on the compound non-security related.  But, security trumps everything.  And, security is always in the control of a major, a big hat. 

I’ve been here at this level 2 facility almost four years and this will be my third major in charge of security.  The first one was easy-going.  He wanted things to run smoothly.  His officers were mostly older.  Both he and his staff had been in the system a long time.  Many of them had been at the higher level facilities where stabbings and other random, mindless acts of violence were daily occurrences.  They – and he – knew what it was like to lock a prison down for nine, twelve, or eighteen months.

So, they gave some latitude to things.  After all, this was a level 2.  Guys spend years getting their level down to come to a compound like this.  A two hundred series charge now and then was nothing – it didn’t cost you your job or good time.

That first major retired and number 2 came in.  He was from a receiving unit, a facility where level 5’s (capital murder, rape and more) mingled with petty larceny or DUI level 1’s.  Those prisons, as I learned on my own, are cesspools; they are powder kegs which erupt almost daily in fights, robberies and worse.  

Security’s goal there is simple:  lock ‘em in until they’re classified and ship ‘em out.  The officers did their jobs; you acted out, you went to the hole.  They were detached.  They walked the floor when required; most times they stayed by the booth.

That attitude took hold here under Major # 2.  Soon there were almost weekly memos about bed areas (what was permissible to have).  Charges were regularly written.  And, even two hundred series charges (“minor” infractions) cost men good time and employment.

Was the prison more secure?  No.  There were just as many fights, just as many drugs, just as many gang members.  In fact, things deteriorated.  Is that the Major’s fault?  Probably not.  See, the prison population was changing as well.

When I first arrived here, most guys locked up were older and they had time yet to do.  Then, Governor McDonnell announced his re-entry program and turned this into an exit point for this region’s soon to be released inmates.  What you get now is a mix of very young, very dumb guys who have little time to do (and came from short jail bids), or very old, long serving inmates who have been everywhere in the system.  They come with health problems, few prospects for successful reintegration into fast-paced society (many have never used a cell phone or ATM), and years of scars built by the violence and degradation of surviving higher level prisons.  They young guys think they’re in camp.  They act out.  The old guys have seen the worst.  They smell b/s a mile away.  Both don’t care about any state announced program.

There are a little more than 1,000 inmates here and maybe a core group of 100 of us run the school programs, maintenance shop and factory.  The rest are short-timers who don’t give a damn about another re-entry program that was just like the last.

The prison has changed; the inmates are worse; the problems more noticeable.  Into that comes Major # 3.  What’s he like?  He’s young, not even 40.  That in and of itself is different.  And, he carries himself like a military officer: pressed uniform, perfect posture.  He was a captain at a higher level, cut his teeth on the violence and degradation at level 4.  And, he’s checking things out.

No one, especially in prison, likes change.  But, some change is good, especially if it cuts down on knucklehead behavior in here.  So, I’m going to take a wait and see approach.  Now, if they’d only come and clean house on the re-entry program…

 

A passing thought:  Why do Americans think the 2^nd Amendment is so sacrosanct yet the 4^th Amendment can be circumvented in the name of security?  I’m not sure what I think of the NSA leaker, but I know this – the founding fathers were deeply concerned about Government’s ability to search without justifiable warrant.

No less than Ben Franklin remarked that people who are willing to give up their liberty for security will soon have neither.

I can tell you from living in here, under daily surveillance, that freedom and privacy matter.