Words Can Be Dangerous

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 2014.

            Words; language; the ability to communicate and convey thoughts and ideas. Words are an amazing thing. Words have the ability to lift you higher than you can imagine and words can break your heart. Words can make you think; they can make you feel. Words can be complex and difficult to navigate or they can be simple and sweet and make you smile, or warm, or feel love. Words can be dangerous. They can incite and ignite; they can lead people to violence; or, they can lead people to freedom. Words, they are the first and the last thing we hear in our earthly lives.

                I read a piece recently about Ulysses, author James Joyce’s seminal novel about one day in the life of one man. I must confess, I was never overly impressed with Mr. Joyce or his novel. I read it because it was known as “America’s most banned book.” At its publication in the early days of twentieth century it was deemed pornographic and lurid, too lurid for “decent” society.

            Ulysses is just one in dozens of books – both great works of literature and mediocre musings – which find their way to be banned, prohibited from view, because someone thinks the words can cause harm. Words are dangerous. Remember the book burnings in Germany as Hitler and his henchmen came to power? Remember Salman Rushdie and his “death sentence” by fatwah for allegations of defaming the Islamic prophet? Remember the Chinese Christians locked up for having Bibles? Words convey ideas, dreams, frustrations. Words can change the course of history and topple governments. Words are powerful.

            The other week, Veterans Day to be specific, there was a concert held on the Washington Mall featuring a host of popular entertainers. Rap artist Eminem in his performance shouted out “Happy F----n Veteran’s Day.” Words can offend.

            In the past three weeks we have seen this nation’s ugly racial problems play out. Grand juries, first in Ferguson, Missouri and then just this week in New York City, refused to indict white police officers in the deaths of black men. The rhetoric on both sides has inflamed the tension. And I thought much during this time about our seeming inability to hear each other. Amid the shouting and the video bits of looting and protests, with dozens of “talking heads” trying to convince us what we should think, the meaning of it all gets lost in the cacophony of words.

            “There’s no excuse for violence or looting,” I heard that a lot. Wasn’t it the Black Panther leader Stokey Carmichael who said “violence is as American as apple pie.” And there’s truth in those words. The American Revolution wasn’t a quiet debate between agrarian intellectuals and London elites. It was bloody and barbaric. The Boston Massacre, years before the start of the revolution, was incited by a rioting mob attacking British soldiers. Violence was, violence is unfortunately, a corner-stone of this country’s history. There was nothing “civil” about this nation’s civil war. We are a nation littered in blood and violence. From “Bloody Kansas to Bloody Selma,” from the burning of Washington to the burning of Watts, we are a people steeped in rioting, and conflict, and turmoil. It is our visceral reaction, our birthright. So, breathe deeply and relax, this too shall pass.

            Five St. Louis Rams football players enter the stadium last Sunday. They raise their hands signifying “hands up, don’t shoot,” the chant which has overtaken the Ferguson protests. The five are pilloried for taking a political stance at a game. “They don’t have the right,” we hear. Except, they do. And the league can discipline them. This is, after all, America and at least – in theory – you can protest, you can speak out. You may lose your job, but you still have the right. And, it doesn’t escape my sense of humor that we react with awe and admiration when a young Chinese man tries to stop a tank in Tiananmen Square but we are offended when traffic is stopped on the Brooklyn Bridge.

            “Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing whether that nation – or any nation – can long endure.” Immortal words from President Abraham Lincoln on November 19, 1863, at the dedication of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. His words that day – less than 300 words penned by him – continue to reverberate in this nation’s conscience. I find myself turning to those words to try and understand what does this country stand for, what do we mean?

            It is time for a “civil” dialog. Words matter and words today can make all the difference. This past week two NBA greats – television commentators Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith – engaged in a civil dialog. Both successful Black men, they see the incidents in Ferguson and New York City differently. To Barkley, rioters/looters are “scumbags.” “Not all black people are good and not all white people are evil. We need the police in our poor neighborhoods.” To Smith, “if you are on an island with no way off, some will rise above, some will act in horrific ways, and some will lose hope.” A funny thing happened as these two men disagreed. As Charles Barkley said, “Kenny’s alright with me.” In their debate, in their disagreement there was commonality, there was “civil” discourse.

            A personal reflection. On a number of occasions I’ve had people try and tell me I should shut down the blog or not write some of what I put out. I’ve had gang bangers threaten me, ignorant white and black inmates tell me to “keep they business” off my pages. I’ve had COs tell me “higher ups” review my blogs. “Don’t write about security or senior staff or they’ll go after you,” a few officers have told me. I keep writing because words matter. Words can illuminate and educate and bring about change. And perhaps that’s what makes them so dangerous.

            You can burn books; you can ban writers; but words are ideas. And ideas make us human and will endure.

 

Iceberg Dead Ahead

DOC settled a 1st Amendment lawsuit on September 23 with the publishers of “Prison Legal News”. DOC agreed to pay PLN $125,000, allow issues previously banned to be delivered to inmate subscribers, and change the book/magazine subscription policy to allow third parties to order books and magazines for inmates.



This is a major victory for advocates of prisoner rights and 1st Amendment rights and another costly lesson for DOC – and Virginia’s taxpayers – for their hubris. DOC has long thought that Constitutional safeguards didn’t apply to them. This year, they are learning, at taxpayer expense, that they do.


For those “get tough on crime” readers: get ready. You want long sentences for inmates. It’ll cost you. And, the cost is staggering, over $1 billion a year.


This year DOC has already lost/settled three significant 1st Amendment cases. Beside the PLN lawsuit, DOC’s prohibition on spoken word CD’s was overruled. An inmate, prohibited from ordering CD’s of a minister’s sermons, successfully sued and had the DOC prohibition on spoken word tapes and Cd's thrown out.


As reported in an earlier blog, another inmate successfully challenged DOC’s censorship policy. U.S. District Court Judge James Turk found the DOC policy void as in violation of the 1st Amendment.


Still pending, a suit brought by the National Lawyers Guild over DOC’s refusal to give inmates access to a legal self-help manual.


Each of these suits cost taxpayers thousands of dollars. And, each of these suits could have been avoided, but for DOC’s arrogance. DOC is its own worst enemy. They are charged with the rehabilitation of incarcerated offenders. Instead, they create and enforce arcane rules that bear no legitimate relation to the safety, security, discipline and order of the institutions they manage.


In the PLN case, DOC took the position that inmates could not have access to court case citations and reviews. In the case before Judge Turk, a senior DOC Director attempted to suggest James Joyce’s classic novel Ulysses was properly banned because “inmates were bartering the book to read sexually explicit passages”. The Judge himself found DOC’s position “laughable”.


As I’ve noted on this blog before, DOC is broken. Literally, inmates are running the asylum. Virginia clings to the hard-hearted, illogical, unsupportable notion that longer sentences mean less crime. Study after study concludes that premise is wrong. Virginia abolished parole in 1995. At that time, there were approximately 9,500 inmates in the system. Fifteen years later, there are over 38,000 in DOC facilities and another 5,000 housed in regional jails awaiting transfer.


Over $1 billion is spent annually on DOC. Yet, the vast majority of that money is for housing and maintaining the inmate population.


Rehabilitation programs are laughable. Big S attended alcohol awareness. It met once a week, 30 minutes, ten weeks.


In my situation, I owe more than $1 million in restitution. Assuming I have to complete my entire sentence, it will cost Virginia taxpayers in excess of $300,000 to house ad maintain me. On my release I will be eligible for Social Security which is not subject to collection. I will pay nothing toward my restitution order.


Instead of creating a system that rewards good behavior, a system that gets an offender to confront his wrongdoing and make amends; DOC oversees a system that tries to make inmates feel hopeless. And, out of hopelessness comes anger and resentment.


Guys in here will challenge any rule. And, every challenge costs money. And, asinine rules cost lots of money. It is becoming painfully clear; there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of lawsuits on the horizon waiting to sink DOC and Virginia’s taxpayers.


Everyone knows the story of the Titanic; the ship that was “unsinkable”. The owners and the crew placed so much credence in their own abilities that they saw themselves as creating the indestructible. But on a dark, starless night a watchman looked up and yelled out the immortal words “Iceberg dead ahead”. Little less than three hours later the “unsinkable” Titanic went below the water.


DOC is the Titanic. Difference is, it’s already hit the iceberg. It’s taking on water. But, it doesn’t have to sink. It will take drastic efforts to save it. First, a complete new mindset. That means the old way of doing things must go. Those senior staff who have presided over this corrupt system must be replaced.


Second, reinstate parole. Have a sliding scale for inmates. Nonviolent felons would be eligible for release after 10% to 30% of their sentence is served; violent offenders’ eligible after 40% of their sentence is served. But, make it based on merit. Work hard in prison, show remorse, seek to rehabilitate, you then earn parole.


Third, make rehabilitation really mean something. Have real treatment programs, more education and vocation opportunities. And, institute “restorative justice” as a central tenet of DOC’s mission statement.


Write your delegates, write the Governor and express your views on prison reform. Better still, suggest to him that he read my blog and meet with me. I’m available 24/7. Through this experience, I’ve been given a life preserver. I don’t want the ship to sink, but I’ll be OK if it does.