So, You're New to Prison -- Cliffnotes to Surviving

 Coming to prison for the first time (and hopefully the last!) is scary for anyone. It's anxiety inducing to step into the unknown, especially given all the horror stores many of us have heard before coming to prison. What is portrayed about prison on TV and movies definitely paints a picture, too, that increases one's anxiety, though that picture is often inaccurate. 

Some fish (as new prisoners are called) project an air of aggressiveness or false confidence in order to counteract their feelings of anxiety. Others try being friendly and playful, while still others try to hide in the shadows as much as possible. They make themselves small, so to speak, in order to observe and stay out of prison drama. 

A lot of factors contribute to a fish's anxiety about entering prison, but the most common include: 
* Security level (levels 4 and 5 are the most likely to be violent)
* Race (non-gang affiliated whites often feel the least safe)
* Crime (sexual crimes and/or crimes against children often increase one's danger in prison)
* Personality (very timid people are usually targets of thieves and extortion)
* Size (smaller people are perceived as weaker and more vulnerable)
* Sexual orientation (gay men, especially, face increased danger)
* One's city of origin (this one surprised me, too...who cares where you're from?!)

One can do very little, if anything, about most of these factors. However, other factors also contribute to whether or not one feels safe. These include:
* Gang affiliation (street beefs often carry over to prison)
* Behavior in prison (one must show respect to others, including to those who do not "deserve" it)
* Attitude (too friendly is usually not good, but neither is carrying a chip on your shoulder)
* One's interactions with officers and staff (a surprising number of people "snitch" in prison, but it's still bad to be perceived that way)

When I was in the county jail, before transferring to prison, an "old head" (a prison veteran) warned me against gang affiliation, gambling, and being involved with "the gays." He wasn't wrong. These "three g's" do attract a lot of the prison drama, but so do debts from using the store man, the dope man, or the gambling table. Much of the violence I've seen in prison has been over unpaid debts or due to gang conflicts, and a small amount over (perceived?) disrespect. 

New prisoners should expect to be watched carefully by veteran prisoners, and perhaps even tested. But simply staying in one's own lane (stay out of other people's business or drama) and saying no when asked for something can help. Vulnerable prisoners, especially, are tested to see if they will say no. If they don't, or don't stand up to the pressure, they are likely to be used by people who pretend to be their friend. 

One of the best pieces of advice I have for new prisoners is to not immediately purchase all the luxuries they can. Hold off for a few months on purchasing a TV. Don't spend the maximum on commissary every store or buy a bunch of personal clothes. Even if you have the money, don't spend it freely. Other prisoners observe new arrivals to see if they have money, and those who do are prime targets for manipulation or exploitation. 

Also, don't talk about your personal business. I've learned that it's better to be up front if asked about your crime (without sharing details), but keep your business to yourself as much as possible. Those who had "stuff" before prison or come from well off families should keep that to themselves. Be kind, but not too helpful. Kindness is sometimes taken as weakness. But false bravado may also be tested. If you're not a fighter, don't pretend to be. 

Prison is definitely an anxiety inducing place, but if one simply uses a little common sense and is observant and socially wise, he (or she) can usually survive unscathed. It also helps a lot to know how to talk to people without being disrespectful, and how to be assertive without coming across as aggressive. 

Surviving prison is definitely a learned art, but eventually one picks up how to "jail" (often pronounced "gel" in prison). Only then can one start to really focus on the important things, like rehabilitation. 

Prison Officials: "Do as I Command, Not as I Do"

 

This past week, some in the news media criticized Michigan's Governor Whitmer for her duplicity regarding Tik Tok. Whitmer banned the use of Tik Tok on government devices, but she continues to maintain and use her own Tik Tok account. It's unclear to me whether or not Whitmer uses a government device to access Tik Tok, but certainly she has a right to her own personal use of the site. However, the optics are definitely bad. The media termed her actions, "Good for thee, but not for me." Working against Whitmer is her duplicity during the pandemic when she mandated mask wearing in public places, but then was photographed in a crowded restaurant without a mask.  I'm not at all surprised by the governor's duplicity. It's a problem rampant in most, if not every, branch of power. Abuse of power has become so normalized that I'm surprised the media even notices anymore.  Let's take the Michigan Department of Corrections, for example. Clearly, I have a front row seat to its many abuses of power and its blatant duplicity in punishing prisoners for violating the law and prison rules while shamelessly doing the same themselves. In my fourteen years in prison, I have seen numerous occasions where corrections officers wrote false misconducts on prisoners they disliked. These officers simply made up an infraction, lied on official paperwork, and because of the lack of due process afforded prisoners, punished them for rules they didn't even violate. This behavior is common among corrections officers.  Of the two times I know of when officers' lies have been exposed (and not defended or hidden by administrative staff), the officers have only been nominally punished. One was fired, but then got his job back with back pay. He was simply transferred to another part of the same prison facility. Another was demoted and transferred to a different prison where he continues to exercise power over the very people he lied about.  I've also seen and heard of officers planting prison knives (called "shanks") in the property of prisoners they don't like. They then "discover" these shanks on shakedowns (wow! magically!), and the prisoner gets punished. These prisoners receive dangerous contraband misconducts, are sentenced to weeks in segregation, and then shipped to a higher security prison.  In the only time the officers' actions came to light, that I know of, the officers were not disciplined at all. They were simply moved to a different housing unit in the same prison. Recently, I had pieces of my mail removed without timely or proper notice. When I grieved the issue, my grievance was denied, rubber stamped, at all three steps. This despite glaring violations by mailroom staff of the prison's own policy. There is absolutely zero accountability for prison officials who violate the very rules they write to keep themselves "in line." The rules only apply to prisoners, not to prison staff.  I happen to believe that there is a very good place for authorities who enforce the law. I'm not an anarchist! But I find it increasingly difficult to have any respect for these very authorities when they hold two standards: one for prisoners and a very different one for themselves. Basic behaviorism teaches that you cannot train people to follow the law when the enforcers of the law do not apply it to themselves. Their own duplicity weakens the force of the very laws they claim to protect.  Law enforcement officials are facing public backlash for the very same reasons. The people sworn to protect the law regularly violate it, and others within the system too often protect the violators. Well, this problem goes far deeper than the very public abuses of power in law enforcement. It has infected, matastasized, and spread to the arm of the law that conducts its business in the shadows - corrections.  And nobody will hold them accountable.  These normalized abuses of power are not sustainable. The entire system's authority requires public trust and the moral high ground. It's quickly losing both (if it ever really had it).

Are All Prisoner Influences Evil, or Is Michigan Overreaching?

The very nature of prison lends itself to some prisoners influencing other prisoners. Those who have been in prison for a long time often talk about the days "behind the wall" (a reference to the old, now closed, Jackson prison). They reminisce about older prisoners "schooling" the younger prisoners in how to do their time. They'd teach them about what, and who, to avoid, how to spend their time constructively, and how ensure they had the best chance to leave prison as soon as possible. 

Of course, what these prisoners rarely talk about are the other lessons some older prisoners taught. These other lessons weren't constructive. They things like taught how to manipulate the system to gain advantage, or to make money or increase status. 

Prison has changed a lot since those days, but some prisoners still influence other prisoners, both for good and bad. The prison administration's job is to discern between the two and do what they can to stop the bad influences. At least that's their job in theory. 

Sadly, it's too much work to use discernment, so prison officials often invent blanket rules that serve to stifle all influence, whether bad or good. One such recent over-reaction is the response of some prison administrators towards prisoners' writings. 

One constructive way prisoners can spend their time is by writing. Some prisoners write poetry, others stories, and still others essays on politics, prisons, and people. I know one prisoner, Bruce, who has written and published twelve books. He discovered the value of education, and after struggling to find out how to attend college in prison, he wrote a book to help other prisoners do the same. He's followed this same pattern - figure out how to help himself, then write for others to do the same - for almost two decades now. 

Bruce inspired me to pursue my own college degree in prison, which I completed nearly two years ago, but he also inspired me to write. I've written and published a book (Insider's Guide to Prison Life), and I've written to this blog for over eleven years now. I've also written many essays, stories, and poetry, some of which have been published by various organizations. 

But in a classic over-reaction to prisoners "influencing other prisoners," prison officials, at least at Parnall Correctional Facility, have decided that prisoner authors cannot receive any copies of their own published works. They claim this would provide prisoners a way to influence other prisoners, even when that influence has a strong probability of being a positive influence. 

The federal courts weighed in on the potential for prisoners to influence other prisoners. In 1990, in *Martin v. Rison*, the court ruled that prisoner authors (and other "big wheel" prisoners) "could provide good role models for other prisoners." In fact, this is the same conclusion Director Washington came to when she determined to use some of us prisoners who earned our bachelors degrees as "role models" in other prisons. 

The same court further determined that prisoners' published works "have an immediate benefit to prisoners as a means of rehabilitation and as a 'nonviolent means to defuse tensions within a prison." When a "big wheel" prisoner uses his or her influence in negative ways, prison administrators have mechanisms in place to stop and punish such behavior, but again, that requires using common sense and discernment. 

In what appears to contradict Director Washington's intentions to encourage positive role models among prisoners, Parnall Correctional Facility staff continue to unconstitutionally stop prisoner authors from receiving copies of their published works. Administrators then rubber stamp such blatantly unconstitutional actions. Instead of investing their energies into stopping real, and often blatant, problems, prison staff invent problems and then pour their energy into "stopping" them. It's a massive waste of government resources. 

It's yet unclear whether or not the department will stop this unconstitutional behavior, or if the courts will have to get involved to protect prisoners' rights to receive copies of their own published works. Stay tuned. 

How Prison Taught Me Important Lessons, Like When to Hit Trump

 They're at it again. The same four prisoners are sitting at the table right outside my door, slapping cards on the table, hollering at each other about their stupid moves, like when they should or should not hit trump to the table. They're wiling away the day as they do every other day. They're playing Spades, and every one is an expert while the others are morons. With all the yelling, it makes me wonder if any of them are actually having any fun.

Scanning down the row of tables, I see others filled with the same groups of guys that normally fill the tables. Most are playing cards of some kind, a few chess, and every once in a while someone is using a table as a place to study. 

If I walk out to the paved area in front of the housing unit, the same handful of prisoners as every other day will be exercising. I can almost tell what day it is based on their routines. I'm one of those, of course, as I have my own weekly routines. 

Still others are found all day on the phones (who has that much to talk about?!), or at the microwaves cooking (who has that much money to cook up every day?!), or running around the housing unit conducting whatever hustle keeps them busy. 

By its very nature, prison is a horribly boring place, so I don't blame these prisoners for their repetitive routines. There's very little productive activity, direction, or purpose in prison. That's why so many people in the free world perceive prisoners as laying around watching TV all day, playing cards or chess, or lifting weights. 

Prison is very structured, but it's structured only in the sense that everything runs on a schedule. But that schedule is filled with precious little that really matters. Most prisons have a recreation director, but few actually have any recreation program worth speaking of. Most have a program director, but such few programs exist that most prisoners are simply waiting to get into a class. 

Some prisons, like where I'm currently housed, offer college classes in partnership with a public or private college. But the waiting list to get in is long, so not many prisoners benefit. Same with vocational trades. Only so many prisoners can go through the trades at a time, so there's always a long waiting list. 

Critics might argue that prison isn't meant to be a "fun" place, and I'd agree. But it ought to be effective. Having prisoners sit around all day playing cards or watching TV does nothing to aid in their rehabilitation. Boredom is the enemy of rehabilitation. Too many prisoners have not learned how to direct their own rehabilitation, how to discover their own purpose. And those who have are often frustrated in that aim by censorious and oppositional prison administrators. 

If all that bored prisoners are doing is playing cards and chess, watching TV, or exercising, we're lucky. Too many find other means of quelling their boredom. Getting high, fighting, or stirring up drama of any sort is usually the go-to for some prisoners. 

You can't expect to pack a bunch of testosterone filled men into what amounts to a cage with nothing productive to do and have them miraculously change for the better. It's insanity to believe that can even happen. 

If prison officials really want positive, productive change among their charges (which is a goal I'm skeptical they actually have), prisoners ought to have productive, educational, and purposeful activities to fill at least part of their days. And those who have discovered a healthy purpose ought not to have to fight with prison administrators to pursue their purpose. 

Prison ought to be a place to teach people how to be productive, moral citizens, or at least support self-directed efforts towards that end. It ought not teach them learned helplessness or passively condone the very behaviors that led them to prison in the first place.