J'accuse

In 1894 after the disastrous defeat of their army in the Franco Prussian War, the French looked for a scapegoat. They found one in the guise of a Jewish military officer named Alfred Dreyfus. After a trial of seemingly vague evidence and anti-Semitic references concluded, Dreyfus was found guilty of treason and sent to Devils Island.

That was not the end of the story, however, because the truth always wills out. French writer Emile Zola risked his own financial success, his reputation, and his very freedom to publish an essay, "J’accuse" in which he took the French military to task for lying to the citizens about Dreyfus. Demand grew in the public and Dreyfus, on retrial, was released.

Today, the same thing goes on in Virginia's corrections gulag and it's high time the public knows the truth. While the director of the department signs letters urging the Federal Dept. of Justice to fund college programs to teach technology to inmates in prison, his security chiefs have investigators tell students they can't participate in the very activities the programs being funded require.

Case in point: we have ten hand-picked students taking an IT certification class requiring 96 hours of prep time before the exam. If these men are successful, more opportunities will arise. Part of the program is to get inside a computer box and see how it works, where all the parts fit, what goes with what. What has been security's reaction here? They swoop in and tell the men "no." Ironic isn't it. At the notorious San Quentin prison, men are training as code writers and are even being hired by outside companies at real wage levels while still behind bars; here, the only job security that men are working toward is bathroom cleaning.

The chief of security here is a political hack. I hate to be blunt, but he is not qualified for the post. He doesn't believe in the "mission" of DOC (at least the published mission); he disrespects the men--dehumanizes them at every chance; he lacks both the intellectual background and "people skills" to successfully manage his staff and the offender population. His officers suffer from low morale; the inmates despise him; and, things get worse. How is he in this job? Good question. The answer, I believe is that no one is paying attention.  DOC wastes money.

"J'accuse." Zola understood that it is too easy for those in power to make up excuses to explain their failure. DOC spends over $1.2 billion each year of Virginia taxpayer money yet the Commonwealth isn't made any safe. Worse, what goes on inside actually leads to more crime--men and women released are likely to return--RECIDIVISM-- after a stay in a prison. Why? Because prison robs an individual of his or her dignity; it makes you institutionalized; it breaks down your empathy, your humanity.

There is no relationship between what they tell you goes on with "corrections" and what actually occurs. DOC talks big about "re-entry" but in reality the reentry program is a joke. They spend millions on programs that don't prepare anyone for return to society with layer upon layer of administration. The re-entry coordinator here is inept and not to be trusted. The really good counselors and staff are leaving, pursuing other opportunities because this place is a swamp of ignorance, despair, and failure.

What works? Education... a college education. You want to make a difference, Governor McAuliffe--start letting low custody offenders out and push education, spend money on college and post-secondary technical training, and for the love of God, make the people you put in charge responsible for ensuring that those programs are carried out. Don't let inept, politically appointed 'Majors" hide behind "security" to avoid getting men and women educated and trained.

"J'accuse." I'm sure a number of folks thought the blog was over. I hadn't posted anything new in almost 2 months. During that time, folks in charge here--folks like investigators who monitor what I write--spoke to me about my writings. I'm sure people thought I'd given up. No, the manager of the blog was moving. She's now settled and I'm back! My goal has always been to write the truth ad let things fall where they may.

I recently read Bernard Kerik's memoir of his fall from NYC police commissioner on 9/11 to federal inmate. The most eye opening part of Kerik's story was he saw the same things I see and write about daily. Our prison system is corrupt, it is morally and financially bankrupt and it is time for courageous politicians to step up. "J'accuse." If Emile Zola could do it, then so can I. The truth matters; the truth will be known.

Each week I will give you insight into this life and the issues that affect the lives of the men in here and their families. You may not always like what I write, but you'll know it's the truth.

Central Park 5 – The Truth Wills Out

            Twenty-five years ago a young white woman left for a run through New York City’s Central Park. That run and the resulting brutal rape and beating she endured set in motion a chain of events that altered the lives of five young black men and their families.

            The attack on the victim quickly riveted the nation’s attention beyond its senseless viciousness. The young woman was an attractive, athletic white college graduate who was employed by a Wall Street firm. Almost, immediately after she was discovered beaten in the park the press began reporting her attackers were a roving gang of black youths preying on victims in a pack-like frenzy. Soon, the public was introduced to the word “wilding,” a term talking heads in the press created to describe such group attacks.

            New York’s Mayor and police commissioner vowed they would find the perpetrators and “bring them to justice.” Massive resources – police officers and the latest tools in criminal investigations – were employed to find the roving band. And America watched each day as reports came out about the victim: head trauma, broken bones. The horrendous details went on and on until … until justice was done.

            With great fanfare, New York’s finest announced the arrest of five African-American teenagers. The case was airtight; there was physical evidence and there were confessions.

            And it was life-imitating art, imitating life, the droning on about the racial makeup of victim and attacker.

            The five defendants – brutal, violent sociopaths, animalistic in their bloodlust – were tried and justice meted out. And the city was once again safe for pretty young white women to jog in …

            Except it was all wrong.

            In what would later turn out to be bad police work, the investigation wrongly focused on these five young men who actually had no physical connection to the attack, nor any physical evidence to even warrant any suspicion. The police used improper interview techniques and cajoled and coerced some of these five boys to give phony confessions implicating themselves and each other.

            And the poor victim who struggled to recover from the serious injuries she sustained was led to believe “these are the attackers.” These five young men, labeled rapists and sent to a New York maximum-security prison proclaimed their innocence … and no one listened.

            Two weeks ago, New York City announced a $40 million settlement with these men. The truth had come out years earlier. The truth about their innocence, the police malfeasance, it all came out and they were released and exonerated. The attacker a lone sex-predator – was in custody. His DNA matched the crime scene; his confession was airtight. There was no “wilding,” there was no “Central Park 5.” There were only five wrongly convicted men who were destroyed in the press and sent to prison.

            Forty million dollars. It sounds like a lot. But, consider that for years – even after the men were exonerated and released; even after it was admitted in court that the confessions were improperly obtained and evidence lacking – the city refused to acknowledge its mistakes. For years these men, these innocent men who had suffered through the hell of New York’s maximum security prison apparatus and who lost years from their lives, were never even given an apology.

            How much is your freedom worth? How much is your reputation, your name worth after it’s been smeared in the press? $40 million feels like thirty pieces of silver. And worse, the money these men received is more than ten times what a wrongly convicted person would receive in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The government doesn’t like admitting its missteps or adequately compensating the wrongly convicted.

            “J'accuse.” In 1894 a French military officer named Dreyfus was accused of conspiring with the hated Germans. Dreyfus was an easy target. He was Jewish and everyone in French military and political circles knew how “those Jews” couldn’t be trusted. Convicted of treason, he was sent to France’s notorious penal colony off Guyana, Devil’s Island, to pay for his crimes.

            The writer Emile Zola refused to accept the rush to judgment and the neatness of the investigation. “J'accuse” – “I accuse the authorities of betraying and convicting an innocent man.” And the truth willed out, Zola prevailed, and Dreyfus was freed from hell.

            In our rush to judge we often rely on our prejudices and our fears to direct our opinions. We forget the police, the government, are made up of fallible individuals who can be manipulated or are lazy, greedy, stupid, or just plain wrong. Perhaps that is why the great theologian Martin Luther, in response to his church’s call to recant – to accept the “political reality” of his times uttered “On the (God’s word) I stand. On this and no other.”

            The “Central Park 5” are free. Yet, like Dreyfus in 1894 innocent men and women still suffer when government rushes toward guilt. Consider that the next time our 24-hour news channels tell you the police have “broken a case.” Someday, you could be Dreyfus.