20th Anniversary: And This We Celebrate?

It was the Beatles who gave us the line, "it was 20 years ago today, Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play...." That was an anniversary worth remembering. Here at LCC, next Friday will mark 20 years since this facility was opened and the administration is going all out to celebrate. How odd, they want to celebrate a place where 1 out of 3 offenders ends up cycling back in to the system within the first 12 months of release; they want to celebrate a facility that costs Virginia taxpayers over $27 million each year to house, clothe, feed, and not much else; approximately 1000 offenders, most of which have been through the system at least once before. They want to celebrate their successes, except there are no matrix to measure success.

You know how things run around here--the worst building on the compound is the "re-entry" building. The guys are off the chain and the staff will tell you they have little control over how things run. The state spends over $100k on an "evidence Based" manager of reentry who is regularly cussed out by the residents of his re-entry pod because he isn't a straight shooter. The re-entry programs--which the state spent millions on to a private contractor--are long on touchy-feely “clap for the word of the day" and short on actual drug and alcohol programs and work skills necessary to succeed.

Participants in re-entry can miss school; their re-entry programs are "that important" to the offender's overall "success." Really? Every study done suggests offenders (at least 50% of whom lack even a high school diploma) need more education, more training in real skills for living outside of ere.

But that doesn't matter. See DOC operates as an independent body; there is little government oversight over control. No one, it seems, is looking at the massive expenditures in money and manpower wasted throughout the system. And before you say, "these guys deserve it," LCC is not a high security facility. Most of Virginia's prisons are level 1 and level 2 which means the vast majority of the men (and women at other spots) are within 5 years of release.
Where is the oversight? Where is the independent audit and control? Where is the real effort at "corrections"? It certainly isn't here.

Know why all these prisons are around? Because Bill Clinton, facing public embarrassment and scorn sold his soul to the Gingrich controlled congress and signed the Prison Litigation Reform Act. In it, the Feds gave billions in block grants to the states to build more prisons. And the states did just that. Only it backfired because the fed money dried up, incarceration rates went through the roof and the system became even more bloated and corrupt. Both Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich admit today they erred; both now are advocates of criminal justice overhaul.

Anniversary celebration? Celebrate this--entire generations of low income, low educated citizens are cycling through the system and nothing being done in here is either making you safer or correcting the problem. You want punishment, that's fine. But the ramifications of a corrupt system that overwhelmingly punishes
and fails to rehabilitate is anger, bitterness and the likelihood that once released you'll be back.

"Happy" anniversary--hardly. Those folks who live out here know the real score--no other businesses want to locate near the prison. And the staff? They've been busy taking employee surveys to understand why morale is so bad and attrition is so high. Instead of an anniversary celebration perhaps there should be a wake.

All These Questions

I have all these questions that keep popping up every time I hear some politician comment on the need for "get tough" policies that keep folks incarcerated for long stretches.

Here I go:

1. What’s the real cost for locking someone up? Yeah, I know you claim it costs $27,000+ a year to keep someone behind bars; but that person also isn't working and paying taxes; and, if that person has kids, chances are that child is living under the poverty level and getting government aid; even worse, that child's likelihood of ending up in here dramatically increases. So, what is the real cost to society?
   
   
2. You talk a lot about Virginia's low recidivism rate, yet every independent study conducted on state recidivism rates always notes that Virginia's approach to collection is different from the rest of the countries. And, as low as it is, it hasn't changed a bit since parole was abolished back in 1994. It's still a little below 30%. The difference is, back in '94 there were 9500 inmates; today there are about 40,000. And today, Virginia spends over $1.1 billion on corrections even though there isn't a whole lot of correcting going on. Programs for drug and alcohol treatment are a joke. Mental health treatment largely consists of high doses of antipsychotic meds. Safety? Go to a higher level and see the number of stabbings, rapes, assaults. Drugs are everywhere in the system; officers and staff are walked off every day for fraternizing with offenders. No one is held accountable--wardens and security chiefs keep their jobs; money gets flushed every day. There is no one who is held responsible. Rules--such as daily schedules and policies--are routinely ignored by the officers while offenders are nitpicked over silly housing policies which breeds further contempt and distrust. We always hear how low the recidivism rate is; yet most adult offenders started out in the Virginia juvenile system-- how effective is the Department of Corrections really?
   

3. Why is it that DOC signed a consent order and settled a class action law suit brought by 5 women at Fluvanna over the poor medical care in the system, yet the same problems that existed there exist at every facility and still DOC fails to take control over the medical care? Hepatitis C positive inmates are daily denied access to treatment; injuries requiring surgery are put off; specialist’s orders are ignored by contract doctors who know that their private company's profit margin will only exist if treatment is denied. And still, DOC does not comply with the order of the Federal Court.
   
   
4. How much does GTL, Keefe, and the other corrections- industrial corporations spend on lobbying Virginia politicians to keep their contracts in place and how much does Virginia receive as "commissions" under those contracts? How much does Virginia spend each year in legal fees and expenses when DOC loses cases for violations of inmate rights?
   
   
5. Why do states--mostly under the control of Republicans--that have implemented prison reform with early release show better results in their DOC's than Virginia?
   

Yeah, I have a lot of questions I'd love to ask those in charge. Problem is, they don't want to discuss the issues, nor do they want to come out here and see what takes place behind bars. But hey, all I've got is time. So every fight, every OD, every wasted dollar, I write down. And one of these days, someone will listen. Prisons are needed; but the way things operate in Virginia does nothing to alleviate crime, nor prevent a person from coming back. And the sad fact is, most in here have neither the education, the job skills, or the hope to make it on the outside without changes. 

Education, Not Incarceration

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 2015.

 

            “Every dollar spent on prison education saves five dollars in corrections expenditures.” That was the conclusion drawn in a 2014 released meta-analysis study conducted by the Rand Corporation. Sentencing a person to prison does more to undermine one’s employability than any other factor. Is it any wonder 65% of released offenders re-offend within 3 years. Inmates are twice as likely to lack a high school education as the general population.

            In the words of Vivian D. Nixon, Executive director of College and Community fellowship in New York,

            “Every felony conviction … quite literally results in a life sentence.”

            Education – and only education breaks the cycle of repeat offenses. Earn a bachelor’s degree in prison and the recidivism rate drops to 5.6%. Earn a master’s and the rate is less than 1%. No less a conservative spokesman than former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said the following:

            “Prisoners should be provided free education in order to reduce crime and recidivism.”

            And yet education – particularly higher-educated – is the red-headed stepchild of the prison system. At this facility every man in our college program pays his own way – tuition – the same rate charged to students on the street. No other inmates in Virginia pay for the “privilege” of improving their chances for success on the street. Not even one state dollar is invested in the college program here, yet millions annually go into “re-entry” programs with no provable record of success. The commonwealth spent millions on a “software” package – “Compass,” a 120 plus question/survey to determine an offenders risk of re-offending. Meanwhile a nationally recognized program for offenders our “Campus within Walls” program is treated with both benign neglect and outright contempt by those in charge here.

            The “dedicated housing unit,” a dorm specifically mandated for use by college participants, is the fullest building on the compound. While bed space sits empty in every other building here, those in charge continue to use beds in this building as a dumping zone. Recent surveys of our students indicated the noise and distractions from the non-college residents are the single greatest impediment to success in class.

            Makes you wonder, or maybe it doesn’t. Education, a college education, is the ticket out. What does that tell you about the goals of those in charge?

            It is time for the Department of Corrections to get behind the one program that will reduce recidivism and that will give these men a fighting chance of success after release.

 

DOC Loses, Again and Again

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 2015.

 

            Betting against DOC in court is becoming a no-brainer. The folks in Richmond keep defending – and losing inmate suits. The cost is borne by the taxpayers.

            So, an inmate in Virginia’s maximum security facility, Red Onion, asks to participate in the Muslim fasting period of Ramadan. Officers go into his cell and search, looking for “physical items in his possession to prove his faith.” The inmate has a Koran and a prayer rug, but nothing else. DOC denies the inmate's participation in the fasting period. He filed suit.

            Ruling against the prison, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that DOC policy was unconstitutional.

            “The First Amendment demands a more reasoned approach, even within the difficult confines of a prison environment.” The court found that indicators of an inmate’s sincere religious beliefs go beyond physical possession of religious items. The court then awarded the inmate $3.795 (his filing and copying costs to bring this prose suit).

            Like the inmate medical care suit (inmates at the Fluvanna Women’s prison), this suit should cause DOC to change policy at every institution. But it doesn’t. Inmates continue to file grievances over bad medical care and denial of their rights to practice their religion. The grievances are filed, suits go forward, and taxpayers pay. No one in the administration is called to answer for it. Sounds crazy doesn’t it?

            Here’s a word you don’t hear too often involving Virginia’s Department of Corrections: Accountability. It’s time DOC is held to the same standard those of us doing time are held to. DOC needs to be accountable.

 

Corrections Incompetence

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 2015.

 

            It’s hard to believe how poorly things run inside a prison. Perhaps no state agency is more mismanaged, more inept, more incompetent than the DOC. Every day brings more fuel for the fire showing the colossal failure that is this place. Maybe that’s a good thing. If they really knew what they were doing, our lives in here would be worse.

            Take last week for example. The compound was on edge awaiting the arrival of the “security audit” team. What, you may ask, is a “security audit team”? It’s a group of 5 or 6 wardens, associate wardens, and security chiefs from other facilities in the DOC system, hardly an independent eye. Worse, the facility knows they are coming so people begin running around like crazy trying to run things the way they think the audit team wants them. The rub is, things aren’t done that way in here. Tension gets higher. Try going to work or medical: “Can’t let you out. You aren’t on the pass list.” Who puts the pass list together? You guessed it: security. And the pass list is a twenty plus page print-out with no rhyme or reason to it. It isn’t sorted by alphabet, state number, or building. Crazy right? Well, that’s DOC.

            The audit team arrives and suddenly there are officers everywhere. What the audit team doesn’t know is they called in COs from the other day shift to show a full complement of staff. Watching from the Program Building (i.e. the school) I see 5 auditors being escorted by 26 COs and “big hats” (rank’d officers – lieutenants, captains, and – of course – the major!). As one disgusted CO told me, “That’s more officers than we have in the buildings on night shift.” Make it look like they have sufficient staff at work – make it look good – forget reality.

            How about access to the facility? Here’s a story. A college professor who has been teaching here for 5 years tries to come in to teach. The metal detector is cranked up. It goes off when it hits her brass buttons. “We will have to strip search you,” the officer tells her – say what? Cooler heads prevail until …

            Weekend visitation: My 80 year old mother has had knee replacement surgery – she’s bionic (has a titanium knee). For almost 6 years she has visited me every month and never had a problem. She and my father travel extensively, in and out of airports all over the world. The TSA lets her pass right on through but here, at a level 2 re-entry facility…

            “Maam, if you don’t send the warden your medical records you won’t be allowed back in.” She was lucky. They still let her in. For many after her on Saturday, they were denied access.

            Who is responsible for this fiasco? The major – he’s (allegedly) in charge of security. But, what passes for security in here does absolutely nothing to make this place more secure, more safe, better run. It is all “sizzle” with no meat. Being a “hard ass,” saying you’re going to run a facility “tight” doesn’t make the facility run well. There are poor management skills and practices in place here. Money and manpower is wasted. Rules have no penological basis nor do they (1) make the place safer or (2) support the alleged mission of DOC (a large part of which is to prepare offenders for successful return to society).

            The process is heavy on paper, with staff who lack basic education skills (try reading most of the memos put out) trying to keep the system chugging along. Rules have nothing to do with safety and security (think “2 books only” on your locker). There are multiple layers of supervision and control yet no one will make a decision without the warden or major approving it first. In other words, nothing gets done because no one has the power.

            The security audit concluded, visitation screwed up, things go back to how they were. That’s life in here, about $25 million spent each year to keep this facility wheezing along. Safety? Security? That has nothing to do with how this place is run. Neither does efficiency. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time for a real audit of Virginia’s prison system to be conducted. Maybe, just maybe, it’s time to hold majors, wardens, and directors responsible for what really goes on in here. Maybe, just maybe it’s time to stop corrections incompetence.

 

 

Grievance Process – or lack thereof

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 2015.

            During the mid 1990’s President Bill Clinton, embroiled in his own sordid sexcapades that become known as the “Lewinsky scandal” signed into law the Prison Litigation Reform Act. The PLRA was an attempt by the majority House Republicans to reign in what they perceived as activist judges from coddling inmates and their complaints. Before enactment of the PLRA an aggrieved inmate could file for habeas relief (habeas corpus protection goes all the way back to the English common law and ensures that “the state” cannot arbitrarily hold a person in confinement without “due process of law” which in effect means an accused is entitled to be treated “fairly”).

            If an inmate’s rights were being violated, the inmate could hand write a petition to the Federal court and spell out the constitutional abridgement. Cases involving beatings by officers, torture, lengthy terms “in the hole” all routinely found their way to Federal Court. Each year tens of thousands of these petitions were filed in U.S. District Courts. And, there were frivolous cases filed. Inmates, with nothing but time on their hands, would file suit because bread wasn’t soft enough, or conjugal visits were not permitted.

            The PLRA was enacted to curb those alleged excesses (more significantly, the act also attempted to deprive death row inmates of appellate rights to review their capitol convictions). Under the PLRA, state were permitted to set up “administrative processes.” Inmates were required to comply with those processes before being able to file suit. Every state and the Federal Bureau of Prisons did such. And, an inmate’s ability to challenge unfair prison treatment immediately began to wither.

            Due process in prison is just a couple of words. The grievance process in effect at this facility is neither fair, nor objective. It fails the “smell” test.

            The facility has a grievance “ombudsman,” a person responsible for handling and investigating inmate complaints. The term “ombudsman” has a specific meaning. It means “a public official appointed to investigate citizen complaints.” By its very definition it implies objectivity and fairness. Nothing can be further from the truth with this facility’s grievance ombudsman.

            Most egregious of the defects is the fact that the staff person in charge of grievances isn’t objective. Her comments about grievances filed by inmates reflects her belief that inmates “don’t know as much” as she does. Case in point – I recently filed a grievance detailing an improper withholding of pay. I specifically “grieved” the housing/program director who attempted to (1) issue a backdated memo about “pay during lockdowns and holidays” and (2) prohibited the education unit from paying for tutoring work in the buildings during those periods while he continued to give full pay to his own workers.

            The grievance ombudsman sent my grievances go to my work supervisor (who wanted to pay me) because “inmates don’t dictate where grievances go, I do.” Here’s the funny thing. Without sounding too arrogant, I have more education, more legal knowledge, and more administrative experience than the facility Ombudsman. Contrary to her view, I know exactly who is responsible for my pay shortage and who created the policy. If the ombudsman was interested in the merits of the complaint, she would have read it and forwarded it to the housing/programs manager and asked (1) why did you “backdate” your policy and (2) why are education workers arbitrarily being denied pay when your workers aren’t? But she didn’t do that because what matters is that the facility wins.

            Daily I am confronted by fellow inmates who just don’t give a damn. The system is rigged, they will tell you. There is no such thing as justice in here. Officers write petty, bullshit charges, rules are arbitrarily enforced, legitimate grievances ignored. “You can’t fight them Larry; you can’t win. They’re in charge.” And I shake my head and try not to agree even though all I see every day is the sham process of discipline and grievances.

            I think of Atticus Finch and his impassioned defense of black share cropper Tom Robinson before an all-white Alabama jury in “To Kill A Mockingbird,”

            “We know all men are not created equal in the sense some people would have us believe. Some people are smarter than others, some people have more opportunity because they’re born with it … But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal – there is one human institution that makes a pauper equal to a Rockefeller, the stupid man equal to an Einstein … that institution, gentlemen, is the law…”

            Perhaps it’s time for those in charge to remember those profound words. Even the incarcerated deserve fairness.

 

Lyin Brian: Life Imitates Prison

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 2015.

 

            A story about my first year here. I thought if I put my legal education and experience to good use I could somehow improve life for most inmates. For months I wrestled with the schizophrenia that is life behind bars: Don’t judge the person – no matter what they did, don’t trust the person, don’t question anyone’s truthfulness. I had a few simple rules for helping guys. First, don’t lie to me. I needed to know, no matter what, exactly what transpired. Second, don’t offer to pay me. There was no quid pro quo. I wasn’t going to be some stereotypical “jailhouse” lawyer who promised guys he’d get them out for a small fee. Like the Eagles “Hotel California,” you can check into prison “anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

            I wanted to believe the system was corrupt (which it is) and that corruption was keeping behind bars thousands of innocent men (which it wasn’t). It took a long time for me to figure out there is a difference between “innocent” and “decent.” Prison takes apart the lives of thousands of decent men (and women) who did illegal – and in some cases horrific – things.

            So, I would read dozens of trial transcripts each week. More often than not, I would find that the inmate (1) was as guilty as guilty could be; and (2) had lied to me about the facts. I also learned that there was no rhyme or reason to sentences. Repeat offenders – those coming back to the system – were typically given a few years (I often heard those men were doing life in 3 year installments), while – depending on the jurisdiction you were in – the years for nonviolent offenses exceeded those handed out for child porn, child sex abuse, even second degree murder; and (3) worst of all, most of my “clients” weren’t remorseful. They were bitter, scheming, “career” lawbreakers who were looking for “an edge,” a way to go toe to toe with a rigged justice system.

            I would tell guys “no” all the time: no, you have no “loophole” to your conviction; no, you aren’t innocent and you weren’t railroaded. As you can imagine, that pissed people off. I didn’t care. The truth, I decided, mattered. I kept coming back to a letter exchange my then wife and I had while I was at the jail in ’08. She wrote and told me she hated me; “there is no more ‘us’,” she said. “You are a liar and a thief.” I wrote her back, told her I loved her and used the line George Clooney spoke to Julia Roberts in “Ocean’s Eleven” (a movie I watch every time it comes on because of their interaction), “I only lied about stealing.” Trouble is, you can’t compartmentalize lying. Honesty, truth matters, not just in marriage but in life.

            This week NBC News anchor Brian Williams had “some esplainin’” to do. He “exaggerated” – i.e. falsified – his narrative of a trip in 2003 to see soldiers in Iraq. He went from journalist dining with soldiers to an active participant in a mid-air RPG hit on the chinook helicopter he was riding in. This wasn’t the first time Williams told the story. For the last few years he has told it, each time embellishing just a wee bit more until the narrative no longer resembled the truth. It reminded me of the toothless crackhead who stopped my run one day in 2010 to tell me “I had a Bentley and a Ferrari, counselor.” “Of course you did,” I replied looking at a man without an education from the worst housing project in Norfolk, a man who was on his fourth trip to DOC for drug use. My buddy DC told me that day, “Guys become whatever they want to be in here and they think no one knows the difference.”

            The truth matters in here … and outside. I find myself thinking a lot about that fundamental premise right now. There are those in DOC (incarcerated and those who work here) that have made it clear to me that they don’t like my writing about prison life. I recently saw a quote from Stephane Charbonnier, director of the French satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo.” In 2012 he was interviewed and asked if he worried his publication’s attacks on “sacred” subjects could endanger him.

            “It may sound pompous but I’d rather die standing than live on my knees.”

            Charbonnier was one of those killed in the Paris Massacre at the “Charlie Hebdo” offices on January 7^th. The truth – honesty – matters.

            Truth: there is a need for prisons. There are some who are so anti-social that they need to be kept from society. However, for the vast majority of those behind bars, prison serves no rehabilitative purpose. You won’t leave prison a better man or woman because of your time behind bars but in spite of your time. Prison is dehumanizing. Prison does nothing to address the root causes of so much of the crime we see: poverty, lack of adequate educational opportunities, fractured families, recurrent cycles of violence. Worse, a significant number of those “on the front line” of corrections want offenders to fail for job security. Some are even hostile and contemptuous of those they oversee.

            Prisons “corrections” – need to be exposed to the truth. People need to see what really goes on in here and what incompetence and neglect their tax dollars are being frittered away on. This lack of honesty, of truthfulness isn’t just the Brian Williams story, or the story of a crackhead and his pretend Bentley, it’s the sum total of Virginia’s prison apparatus.

Walking Out the Front

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 2015.

 

            I received an email (by printed copy of course!) asking about newly released prisoners. What happens when you leave? First, DOC has what they call “adjustment days,” 30 of them. Your “release date” is 30 days (or 28 – 29 days if on a weekend) earlier than calculated provided you have a verifiable home plan. What’s a verifiable home plan? A place to live that isn’t in a high-crime area with other felons – or guns – around. Yeah, that’s realistic for most guys in the system! So, they take some of those 30 days back while a home plan gets perfected (half-way house included). At the end of 30 days, plan or no plan, you leave – they can’t keep you beyond your release date (unless, of course, you are civilly committed as a predatory sex-offender).

            Guys learn early: Get a home plan or entered in a half-way house and don’t rely on these people. Counselors are notorious for dropping the ball – you learn 2 days before your release date your home plan fell through. Worse, if you are heading out of state you must be pre-approved with the receiving state (called “inter-state” compact). That process can take up to six months.

            You get everything lined up and you are ready to leave – what happens? DMV comes and prepares you a photo ID (looks like a driver’s license). You meet with the release officer who goes over your money (you get $25 in cash plus your savings on a debit card which, as an aside, is costly to use – it’s part of the JPay system notorious in prison. All that money comes from you – the state gives you nothing).

            Clothing: Families can send in “home clothes” 30 days before you leave. You put those on the morning you walk out. No one sends you anything? You are measured and given a khaki work pant and windbreaker set.

            You box up and send out all your personal stuff. Guys in the building hover around hoping to get a spare bowl, or book, or tee shirt.

            Release day. If no one is coming, you’re called out of the building at 4:00 am handcuffed, shackled, and driven to the bullpen at Powhatan where you are placed in a van and driven to the bus station. But, if family or friends are coming to pick you up, around 8:00 you leave the building. You walk down to property, dress, and then around 8:30 you walk up the boulevard and through the gates to the administration office, the front door, and freedom.

            You greet your family, you don’t look back, and you hope to God you aren’t one of three coming back. There’s a meeting with your probation officer within the first 48 hours and a drug screen. You have to find work and make plans to pay court costs, restitution, and fines. And it’s scary – you see it on the guy’s faces as they head up the boulevard – but there aren’t standing counts or chow lines or lock downs. You wear the scarlet “F” – “felon,” but you are out.

            Each year, upwards of 17,000 men and women walk out. Each year 5,000 to 6,000 walk right back in. The odds aren’t great but ultimately it’s on you … and that’s a good thing. Your record is public information. Your release documents are yours alone; but, DOC always has your number. You are always in their system.

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.

Hey Mr. DOC Director

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN JANUARY, 2015.

 

            Dear Sir:

            You spend a good deal of time telling the public how important re-entry is. DOC spends millions on “cognitive community” buildings run by “Evidence-Based” management techniques. Such great terminology that – in reality – means absolutely nothing to real success after prison. How much do you really know about what goes on in your prisons?

            Evidence-based failure, that’s it in a nutshell. Mr. Director, you spend millions on multiple layers of staff who spend their time trying to persuade others that their jobs really matter. Have you seen the flow-chart posted in the buildings that detail who offenders need to address questions to?

            Counselors report to “unit managers.” Unit managers’ report to the “Evidence-based manager,” who puts childish rules in place (“no sitting in your chairs during quiet time”) that have nothing to do with preparing men for life in the real world. That’s what your “E-B” program is giving you: silly, inane rules that just piss the men off and do nothing to promote leaving and never re-offending.

            As if that wasn’t bad enough, you put people in positions of responsibility who are anti-education, anti-college especially. This facility has a nationally recognized college program which has been written about by an eminent Harvard researcher. All the students pay their own way (no other DOC program is self-funded). The students reside together, study together, and rec and eat together creating a community. This seems like a good thing, right?

            Why then does your security chief scoff openly about the program? Why are new arrivals constantly dumped in the open bunks while other buildings have empty space? Why does your Evidenced-Based manager get away with saying there should be no college building?

            You’re in charge; do something. You know the Harvard researcher and you know what the research proves: earning a college degree while incarcerated is the most successful tool to reducing recidivism. Tell your staff, “Get on board or get a different line of work.” Become an advocate, not an adversary.

            Inmates don’t need “words” of the day and silly rules; they need real job skills, real educational opportunities, real interview practice. That’s what the “evidence” proves, not the crap that’s being pedaled out here.

 

Medical Update

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN JANUARY, 2015.

 

            Virginia DOC recently settled the pending class-action lawsuit brought on behalf of the 1200 female inmates at Fluvanna Correctional Center. The lawsuit alleged that the women were receiving inadequate medical care. A court appointed monitor will be named to reform health care services at the facility and VDOC has agreed to revise department policies regarding health care.

            At the same time, the department faces a $45 million shortfall in inmate healthcare through next year. DOC had contracted with Corizon (a “for-profit” prison medical provider) to manage medical care in 17 facilities, but Corizon withdrew mid-contract because it found it could not meet its profit goal and fulfill its contract obligations. Another “for-profit” medical corporation – Armor – has temporarily taken over medical care in those 17 prisons which has led to a further $14.4 million shortfall in the DOC medical budget this year.

            Finally, DOC acknowledged that there are 23 active hepatitis C patients who can benefit from the newest drug treatment protocol (that number will go to 50 next year) however, only $750,000 was budgeted – each 12 week treatment costs $84,000 per person – creating another budget deficit.

            “DOC” could be an acronym for “draining our state coffers.” What a continuing waste of money … and lives. Isn’t it time for change?

 

 

Up in Smoke

 

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN JANUARY, 2015.

 

            They locked another college student up the other day – “Leo,” a short guy who’s been down much too long – almost fifteen years (with a one year break in there) with nine more to go. “Dirty Urine” was the reason. He – and another guy named “Lefty” – were packed up New Year’s Eve. And, they’re guilty; they know it; the investigators know it; everyone in the building knows it. They were part of the regular group of ten to twelve guys going out in a pack, every day at the same time, huddled together – or worse, hanging out around the three port-o-johns on the rec yard.

            They get busted – no brainer for the investigators – and rumors fly that there’s a “rat” in the building. It’s always a “snitch,” has to be, they’ll tell you. You think you can get away with it, it’s all well-planned, you know what you’re doing, and just like that it goes up in smoke.

            I have no doubt there are snitches in the building. There are some guys who are too comfortable with the officers and it borders on fraternizing. There are guys who love stealing “private” moments in the building vestibule with a particular female officer; or, they stop the CO at their cut and laugh and joke for ten, fifteen minutes. They forget why the CO is on the floor; worse, the CO who feigns professionalism – and yet DOC may be the most unprofessional uniformed group in state employment – likewise gets too cozy with the inmate. It’s toxic; it’s potentially dangerous; it always causes trouble.

            And these guys talk and they say things about others that they shouldn’t. Almost every one of those guys is slow – by slow I mean not bright. Worse, they lack connection with family or friends outside; they lack connection with the “real” world. They substitute communication with those outside for phony relationships with those in charge.

            Ironically, they aren’t the snitches. Don’t get me wrong, they tell. No, snitching is done more subtlety. It’s done with anonymous “notes.” Scores are settled. Want to get even? Drop a note. There is a constant undercurrent of suspicion and accusation inside the fence. “He’s a snitch,” is almost always followed by a loud, obscene, denial from the targeted. Snitching – or the paranoia generated by the thought of a rat in your midst – creates tension and stress.

            Back to the lock up. So, the guys get busted and talk immediately centers on “who told.” Small groups gather around the dorm trying to figure out who fingered “Leo.” “Someone had to tell,” becomes the mantra. After all, they “piss tested” every user not once, but twice, in a week’s time. I sit back and watch with bemused thought. Like “Pogo” said, “we have met the enemy, but he is us.”

            We are not good at doing wrong. Ten guys who go outside, together, and huddle around each other will always draw the attention of the tower. Smoke in the bathroom and the aroma heads toward the doors. You don’t need a snitch to tell you who’s using. All you need to do is look.

            Before he was locked up “Leo” came to talk to me. “If they get me will I be let back in school?” I saw fear in his face. For most of his life, “Leo” had let his mom down. He was in and out of trouble with the law; there was drug use and a short prison sentence in his teens; released, he gets back on drugs and commits robbery and now is sentenced to real time – years, decades, not months. His mom was always there.

            He started college and appeared – anyway – to be “getting right.” He made A’s in all his classes. In a presentation in class he spoke about “bad thinking” and the resulting damage it caused. Then, drugs became too easy to get in here – weed, coke, heroin, pills – and he started smoking. And, all that work, all that “growth” and “change” went up in smoke.

            He says he’s quitting school. “I don’t want to be living with snitches,” he told a guy while they were taking him out. Other “smokers” parroted his words. “I’m not going to college with a bunch of rats.” I shake my head. Short-sighted thinking, bad self-analysis of what matters, these are the trademarks of most people behind bars: misevaluation of the risks and the consequences, misjudgment of long-term prospects. Is smoking a little weed more important that getting your education? So you quit school and move to another building – just like this one with the same caliber of men whose character is already suspect – and you think you can get high without repercussions and still leave prison with opportunities for decent  work? Yeah, you’re smoking something alright. You’ve let reality go up in smoke.

            What will “Leo” do? My gut tells me he’ll be back. First time dirty urine gets you ten, maybe fifteen days. He won’t want to call home and say “Mom, I screwed up again. I quit school because I got caught getting high.” No, he’ll come back. The other guys? I’m not so sure. Inmates are known to do stupid things, just look at me.

            Up in smoke. Prisons claim they are in the business of rehabbing errant citizens. Most of us will leave this place (over 90% of Virginia’s incarcerated are released), but as I watch men repeat the same short-sighted thinking that put them here, I wonder, will it ever change? Will they ever change?

            Snitches cause tension. But, bad-thinking, impulsive, short-sighted behavior is what keeps places like this full, and dreams and decent lives go on … up in smoke.

 

 

Christmas ’14 Part 2 Meeting Ximena

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 2014.

 

            I have weird experiences in here with my writing. Almost everyone – it seems – knows I write. I get asked almost daily – “What are you writing this week?” Or “Is this going in a blog?” I’m constantly amazed by people coming across my ramblings. So, I’m sitting around the other day and a guy asks me, “Why do you write about all this stuff?” Good question. I thought about that a little while. Why do I write about all this stuff? Maybe, I think, something I write will make a difference to someone. They’ll pause for a moment and say, “He may have a point,” or “I’ve felt that same way.” That’s my noble rationale for writing. The less noble reason is I want to write a story that will lead me to meet Ximena.

            Writing nobly. I was walking back from chow one night when a young guy, new to the compound, stopped me. He very politely asked, “You’re Larry and you have a blog?” When I said yes, he told me I helped his mom and wife understand what this “really was.” Funny thing is, I get that almost weekly from guys who have family – or friends who stumble across my site and stop for a moment, read, and get what’s going on.

            There’s a song by Sara Bareilles, “Brave” that goes in part,

            “You can turn a phrase into a weapon or a drug

            Or you can start speaking up …

            Fallin for the fear

            Disappearing, bowing down to the mighty

            Don’t run, stop holding your tongue

            Maybe there’s a way out of the cage you live in

            Maybe one of these days you can let the light in

            Honestly, I want to see you be brave.”

            I write – a lot – because I think I have perspective now. As I told two friends who visited the other day, this past six and a half years have exposed me to a lot I never thought existed. There are a great number of folks who live on the fringe of society. For them, the deck is stacked. They are disrespected, disregarded, and America seems disinterested in their well-being.

            I didn’t want to think color, religion, or you financial status mattered. I smugly held to the notion that all are equal before the law. They aren’t. Ours is a fragile experiment in governance and we as a people fail more often than we care to admit. I found myself thinking about rap artist Macklemore’s song “Same Love,” addressing prejudice aimed at gays.

            “America the brave still fears what we don’t know.

            God loves all his children is somehow forgotten,

            While we paraphrase His book that’s been around 3500 years …

            I learned in church if you preach hate in the service,

            Those words aren’t anointed.”

            I write because I think honesty requires it. For too long I wasn’t honest, about a great number of things. Then I found myself in a foreign environment, lost, confused, broken. Honesty came naturally at that point. There’s a lot wrong with all this in here. There are more than a few who deserve better, who need compassion and help, not punishment. There is also a lot of evil and ignorance and just plain stupid behavior. So I write because in my heart I believe I have a story to tell. The people, the stories are fascinating.

1. Gay Tony. He sits to pee and sashays around the building like he’s in a Lana Turner movie. When he first moved in he said, “I just love the way you talk Larry, so worldly and polite.”
2. There are “Vikings,” guys who think showering and laundry are optional. You watch them use the bathroom and exit without a bar of soap coming near their hands. And, you finally break down and say, “Look, you need to get in the water and wash your ass!” You learn guys live in here like they live outside; there are some filthy men living out there!
3. You see layer upon layer of DOC “counselors” who do no counseling and in fact, cause more harm than good. They put inforce stupid rules to “modify” behavior – they only piss guys off. “Evidence Based programs” – that’s the catch word for re-entry programming and it’s nothing but inane jargon created to keep people employed.
4. Drug use is rampant. God knows how much is spent on “piss” testing. Weed, coke, heroin – it’s all here in abundance. And, somehow guys have figured out how to beat the test. The investigators rely on “rats” dropping “notes” on “enemies.” Want to hear something funny? Most of the “informants” the investigators rely on are dirtier than who they rat out.
5. So, four guys in our building – all who are walking in and out the port-o-johns on the rec yard far too often – get tested. They “conclude” someone dropped a “note” on them. As I said earlier, guys are plain dumb. Anyone can tell they’re up to something. “You know Larry, this should be expected in here. This is prison.” I disagreed. You learn who you really are in your worst moments. You don’t have to be a user/an addict/ a scumbag in here; it’s way too easy to be one out there.
6. The factory guys. Sure, they make fifty-five to eighty-five cents an hour making furniture that is sold at exorbitant prices to state agencies who could buy the same stuff on the open market at lower cost. That’s Virginia’s “correctional enterprises” program: slave wages plus captive buyers paying exorbitant prices.

Yes, that’s life around here. It gets discouraging sometimes, ok, most times. Then, I think about Dr. Ken Brantley. He was in Africa, a doctor serving with the Christian aid group “Samaritan’s Purse.” Brantley contracted Ebola. He returned to America and was treated with experimental drugs. And he survived.

            “I still have the same flaws I did before, but whenever we go through a devastating experience like what I’ve been through, it is an incredible opportunity for redemption or something. We can say, ‘How can I be better now because of what I’ve been through?’ To not do that is kind of a shame.”

            Dr. Brantley understands redemption. Perhaps, just perhaps, that explains why I keep writing. You screw up, you throw it all away and you try and get beyond the regret that gnaws at your very being. You realize you can’t change the past, but maybe you can affect the present and improve the future. So noble. But, there’s “Ximena.”

            My buddy, O, has been trying to teach me Spanish for more than a year and I must confess, I’m miserable at it. I recognize a fair number of words, can read it and create grammatically correct sentences. But translating it and speaking? Let’s just say you wouldn’t want me asking anyone in Honduras for directions!

            He did get me watching Univision which is where I found “Ximena.” Ximena – a former “Miss Columbia” in the “Miss Universe” pageant is a mid-thirties “weather girl” on Univision’s morning show. Univision is to beautiful women what Omaha is to steaks. Every show is cast full of gorgeous women. No matter how bad the news is in the world, you smile watching Univision.

            So I decided – I told the guys – that I’ll write the great American novel so that I can get invited to Univision’s morning show and meet Ximena. Hey, it’s a goal, maybe not a noble goal but a goal nonetheless.

            Christmas 2014; seventh one inside. And it’s Ok. There are days I still wonder when all this will end; there are days when I feel like I am more alone than I thought possible. But then, then there are those days when I know I matter, and this matters; days when I laugh more than I ever believed possible in these circumstances.

            I’ve thought about the “human” condition a lot recently. We have such an almost natural ability to do horrible things: killing kids in schools in the “warped” name of your God. We seem to kill more than we heal; we are self-centered, vindictive, and fearful. And then, in the hopelessness and darkness there is … hope. That’s Christmas, a reminder that no matter how dark things appear, there is a light, “and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.” Are there any more hopeful words?

            What does all this have to do with prison? A long time ago a prophet said the following, that a day was coming when “He” would,

            “Open blind eyes,

            To bring out prisoners from the prison.”

            Everything I write, everything I experience in here is seen through that lens. It’s all about prison, though not just the ones with walls.

Merry Christmas

Another Closing?

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 2014.

 

            The COs have been on edge the past few days. Rumors are circulating that another prison closing will be announced before Christmas. Given the age of the current facilities still in operation betting is on Buckingham or Nottoway, both level 3/4 prisons. I say “good.” The waste and mismanagement that permeates DOC is appalling. That so few know about it – or even care to understand it – is worse. Like regular German civilians who didn’t “want to know” what was going on behind the concentration camp fences, so too it seems are the vast majority of Virginians who choose to ignore the $1.2 billion annually spent to house 40,000 behind bars.

            As I’ve written repeatedly in these pages, Virginia’s prisons are run like self-contained fiefdoms. Department Operating Procedures put in place to provide uniform standards are arbitrarily enforced from facility to facility and inmate to inmate. Discipline and grievance procedures – created to provide constitutionally guaranteed due process rights, are ignored. It is virtually impossible for an inmate to prevail in a hearing where an officer has written a charge or where the facility has violated its own DOPs.

            It clearly is a tough time for DOC. A billion dollars is “real” money and probing eyes are beginning to look at how it’s spent by the prisons. And the easy answer for the director, his regional managers, and even the wardens themselves, is to cut back on the inmates: poorer food, less access to medical and programs, less rec, cutting back work hours and pay. But, those items are just small line items compared to the tens of millions spent on too many officers, counselors, and administrators who draw a check just for “watching.”

            It was reported in last week’s Washington Post that Texas’s prison reform efforts have yielded a “$3 billion savings.” Those efforts included sentence reductions, early release for nonviolent offenders, and more emphasis on community corrections. Great ideas all and yet Virginia DOC continues to ignore them and instead does the old “sweep in and close.”

            Virginia’s prison operation since the early ‘90s – when parole was abolished – has been built on a series of lies involving “tough on crime” slogans, the real cost of incarceration, and the effects these policies would have on crime rates and recidivism. Those lies are coming due and doors are being closed … and I say it’s about time.

           

 

Holton Hears a Who

THIS BLOG WAS WRITTEN IN DECEMBER, 2014.

            My apologies to Dr. Seuss, but sometimes things just show up in my mail and I read them and realize “this says it all!” Such was my reaction when I read Walter Holton’s op ed on prison reform, “Changing the Priorities of a ‘Prison-Happy Country.’” Who is Walter Holton? He’s the former United States Attorney for the Middle District of North Carolina. He was chief federal prosecutor in his district and he handled more than his own share of criminal prosecutions. He understands the “system.” So, his insights, his critiques, should carry weight. Funny thing is, he sees prisons – and this nation’s love affair with incarceration – as in dire need of change.

            “We are a prison-happy country with five percent of the world’s population and 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Our prisons are overrun with non-violent offenders hit with mandatory minimum sentences or longer sentences than were previously imposed for the same crimes.”

            How about this from the former federal prosecutor:

            “Research now shows conclusively that longer prison sentences do not reduce crime …

            Prison punishes – that’s it. Prisons take people out of work. Prisons remove parents from children and from child support obligations. Prisons almost certainly guarantee that the prisoner returns home less educated, less trained, and less employable. As a result, crime goes up, not down. The numbers don’t lie.”

            Harsh critique from one who was on the inside. Holton understands what one day in here proves – prisons fail. They don’t make society safer, they don’t reduce crime, and they don’t deter future criminal wrongdoing. Holton isn’t saying there should be no prisons. But, prisons, historically used for the violent; are now overrun with most non-violent offenders serving abnormally long sentences.

            How did we get to this place?

            “We made mistakes,” Holton writes. “One big one is promising states money to build prisons if they agree to lengthen prison sentences. They did. Prisons sprang forth and have filled. We have incarcerated prisoners at a world-record pace, taking in the violent and the non-violent. Oops. (Don’t you just love it when a federal prosecutor uses the term “oops.”) …

            Federal and state prison budgets now eat one-third of the money available for the public good. The United States Department of Justice … now feeds one-third of its total budget to the prisons.”

            Feeling safer American? Prisons bleed money and lives. Prisons – for all but the most violent and unrepentant – serve no positive societal purpose. Prisons destroy human dignity, hopes, lives.

            The real tragedy behind America’s love affair with incarceration is that people just don’t know. They don’t know:

1. Almost 900,000 behind bars are there for nonviolent offenses;
2. 330,000 + are behind bars for drug offenses
3. 125,000 + are over the age of 55 (studies show that inmates over 30 have a 3% recidivism rate);
4. 40% of the incarcerated suffer from a diagnosed mental disease or disorder. Prisons have taken the place of mental hospitals
5. Over 50% of those incarcerated had a monthly income of less than $2000 in the month prior to their arrest
6. On any given day one in ten African-American males below age 30 will be behind bars.
7. 2.7 million children under the age of 18 have a parent behind bars
8. There are more African-American men behind bars or on probation/parole than were enslaved in 1850 before the Civil War
9. 65 million Americans have passed through the adult or juvenile criminal justice system (that’s almost one out of every five citizens)
10. There are more mental health patients in prisons than in all hospitals combined.

  

Mr. Holton understands all that. “I once was blind but now I see.” I get his conversion. See, its easy being “tough on crime” when you don’t know the truth, when you’re comfortable in your perfect American life. That was me. Then, everything came crashing down. I stood before a judge, remorseful (not just my opinion, but a state-employed forensic psychiatrist). The judge sentenced me to fifteen years of active time, more than most second degree murderers, more than most child pornographers and sex abusers. It was, pure and simple, a sentence built on punishment. There is no “rehabilitative” program available for me; no job retraining or education. It certainly won’t help with the restitution owed to my former employer. It has cost Virginia’s taxpayers over $200,000 to keep me behind bars these past six years. Is the Commonwealth safer? Were there alternatives? Will I leave here a “better” man?

            Holton writes what I see daily. Prisons are refuse centers. They are dumping grounds. For most of the pathetic men I’ve seen in my time in here, their incarceration was a forgone conclusion. The proverbial deck – with poor schools, dysfunctional families, economic inequality – was stacked against them. And their trip – or trips – here makes them even less likely to become productive citizens. And those who work here? They spend their time “minding” – watching over men, performing rote, perfunctory tasks. This isn’t skilled labor; it isn’t meaningful work. It just is … a check.

            Mr. Holton didn’t suddenly come to his epiphany. No, it was his years in the system that told him something just didn’t seem quite right. It took a while, but Mr. Holton finally heard the “who.” Do you hear it?