Do You See the Irony?

            Do you the irony all around us? In a Washington Post editorial this Sunday, a Columbia University professor who lost a son fighting in Iraq for this country, points out that since 1980 we have bombed fourteen Middle Eastern, majority Muslim countries. What has been accomplished? Nothing. Yet, here we go again. In our quest to protect “America,” the President has created a grand coalition of willing partners to take on the brutal thugs in ISIS. They behead their victims. Yet, one of our coalition partners – Saudi Arabia – beheads as a punishment. In September, 19 were beheaded (publicly) in Saudi Arabia. We claim such behavior is a danger to the “civilized” world; this country however is one of the few who still allow capital punishment. Irony, yes indeed.

            In Virginia, hundreds of inmates are held in solitary confinement. “Solitary,” “the hole,” is used to excess throughout this country. Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and a significant number of America’s religious organizations have called on the nation to end this cruel incarceration practice. And still, as I write this, thousands languish alone in cells, deprived of human contact. Ironic in a nation that cherishes freedom and basic human dignity.

            Hundreds are held at Guantanamo Bay. These men, labeled “enemy combatants,” have never been charged with any crime. The United States, a nation built on the “rule of law” ignores that very concept by holding without charge. Worse, at the military tribunals being held for the few who have actually been charged, the CIA is entitled to interject in legal proceedings and stop them from moving forward if, in the intelligence officer observing the hearing’s opinion, questions of National Security are in issue.

            Irony. Virginia Courts sentence young men like “Cubby” to prison for heroin usage where, with the help of corrupt guards, drugs flow as freely as on the streets. Then, DOC penalizes the inmate for his dirty urine and takes his good time. They ship him to a higher custody level where drugs are even more prevalent and, because of his youthful appearance he becomes easy prey for violent, predatory inmates. Nice “justice” system.

            How about this? You are told every day that DOC “prepares offenders for re-entry” by providing quality programs especially “education.” Then, they promote a security mentality at the lower levels that each week somehow manages to interfere with schooling. The security chief, i.e. “The major,” holds schooling for inmates in contempt. And yet, as guys earn GEDs, as the college program succeeds and gets national recognition in spite of his efforts, he is lauded. Irony.

            Irony. We live with it every day. We “hold these truths” to be self-evident then accept less from those in charge. “Allies” are as barbaric as our enemies; our enemies – while cruel, hold no exclusivity on cruelty or ignoring basic human dignity and rights. And, corruption overflowing in our “justice” system is met with yawns. The most ironic thing is we continue to tolerate it.

Conspiracies Everywhere

I was an unwilling participant to a conspiracy conversation the other day which got me thinking about failures in the nations corrections philosophy that are so prevalent today.  A couple of the young black college guys were debating the “real causes” of 9/11.  All three of these guys had read a revisionist “historians” (the guys not really a historian) take that the CIA and White House led the attack.  When I challenged their “research” they claimed I was too gullible.  “America’s the shit Larry.  Don’t you know that after what you’ve been through?”

Ignorance is alive and well in the inmate population.  Guys will buy any conspiracy theory – join bizarre prison created “religions” with off the wall theories.  I used to find it mildly entertaining.  But, like the rapid rise of another group of conspiracy believers – the Tea Party crew – I’m feeling a great deal of unease.  Prison spurs kooky views.  It’s up to the corrections professionals to address it.

When I was still held at the Henrico Jail I met an early twenties white kid who was an amazing artist.  He could draw anything – portraits, scenery, cars, you name it.  He was also covered in Nazi tattoos.  One morning around 5:00 as was my custom, I was drinking coffee, writing in my journal.  The kid sat down with me with a pained expression on his face.

“Mr. Larry, you’re a nice man.  I’m afraid the darks are gonna hurt you when you get to prison.  You need to join the Aryans.”

I thanked him for worrying about me but politely told him I didn’t need a white supremist group to keep me safe in prison.

Then I get to prison and I run up on Aryans, Hispanic gangs, a half dozen black gangs, Nation of Islam, Five Percenters, and a host of other fringe groups who each espouse a philosophy built on a corrupt power elite beating down on them.

Ask the average inmate to consider the real cost (in dollars) to taxpayers to keep them locked up and they will tell you prisons make money.  Why do they believe that when the evidence overwhelmingly shows the financial drain corrections has become? “If you were right Larry it’d make no sense to keep us locked up without early release.  Only a fool would run a system like that?” (Are you listening Governor McDonnell?).

Black inmates are suspicious of white inmates.  Two groups:  NOI and Five Percenters (anti-white) are recruiting members in droves.  Why?  Because they offer simplistic explanations for the despair that permeates the lives of inmates.  It is easier to accept your station in life believing “white America is a racist country bent on destroying blacks through prisons and drugs” (and one need only look at the extraordinarily high percentage of blacks incarcerated to see why this gains traction) than to engage in an in-depth study of this country’s racial schizophrenia.

As I tutor guys in History, English, Philosophy and the Social Sciences I am constantly surprised how little these guys know.  They have very little knowledge of history and are unable to synthesize events as they develop across historical/sociological lines.  Every event can be boiled down to some knee-jerk neo-Marxian theory of power and suppression of people.

So, what I do is, when asked, I state the truth.  I let the facts speak.  Does it change some things?  Sometimes.  Guys hunger to know why.  Prison should be a place of honest reflection.  Instead, it is a jungle of lies, anger and ignorance.  And the system feeds those three.  Courts aren’t “blind” arbiters of justice; sentences are disparate, even when crimes are similar; race and money matter in too many convictions and sentences.  Prisons become dumping grounds with too few programs, too little educational opportunities and sadistic guards and inmates vying for supremacy.

Men lose hope and without hope there is nothing.  In one of the most moving scenes in “The Shawshank Redemption”, Andy, sorting records in the warden’s office, barricades himself inside and takes over the prison speakers.  He puts on an operatic aria and the prison suddenly stills as the men listen to two women sing in Italian.  He is caught and goes to the hole.

The next scene, he is in chow – thirty days later with his friends.  They sit and stare in amazement at Andy looking fresh after such a long period in the hole.  “How’d you do it?” they asked.

“I listened to Mozart the whole time.” 

“You had music back there?”

Andy pauses, “In my mind.  They can physically keep me here, but in my mind I’m free.  I still have hope.”

There’s a reason hope lives even in a place as dehumanizing as prison.  Hope is about truth, and beauty, and love.  Too many men in prison have given up on hope.  They look for simple explanations; they see nothing but time.  Until prisons become places of hope, conspiracy theories will thrive; anger, despair and hatred will have homes; and fringe groups will flourish.

Hopefully, it will change.