PRISONER EXPRESS

But the abuse? No, that wasn't a surprise at all. What really amazed me was the cry from American people over abuse of the people in a foreign country while our own sons, daughters, mothers, fathers, husbands and wives suffer just as badly right here in America and no one seems to care, much less do anything to change it. The same physical and physiological torture in the Iraqi detainees and 9-11 suspects in NY were subjected to take place in American prisons on a daily basis.

From my observations over the past ten years, the better educated the guards are the more humanely the inmates are treated. Many of the guards in North Carolina prisons are former military members. These correctional officers, much like a large portion of the military enlisted ranks, are poorly educated and from lower class, low income families. While an education doesn't guarantee better morals, ethics, and civility, it proves to be a better deterrent of inappropriate behavior than not.

Where all levels of human decency cease to exist is largely in the situations where more than one or two correction officers have a confrontation with an inmate. This seems to be the point where, a) the guards feel most sure of themselves and secure in terms of personal safety; while, b) the inmate feels challenged, intimidated and concerned causing his own levels of rationality (which are sometimes questionable to begin with) to flee from his mind while fear and adrenalin flood his system. Now, when the mentality of the guards consolidates into a collective mindset, (mob mentality, anyone?) They, at times, lose grip on their own rationality and their roles and responsibilities as not only correction officers, but fellow humans also. At this point we have an inmate reacting to the instinctive fight or flight syndrome brought on by a number of stimuli, both external and internal. So, he either mouths off to the guards (who already get their share of verbal abuse), or figures he has nothing to lose and attacks the guards. Whichever occurs, it's enough to tip the scale. All of the petty insults and slights he has endured come crashing down on the inmate in a moment of retribution and retaliation. There's nothing comical or entertaining about it. It's savage violence in its rawest form.

Myself, I just recently left H-Con Unit (highly intensity control lock-up), or super max. After spending 2 " years there I've personally suffered and witnessed many, if not all, of the abuses exposed in NY and Iraq.

Strip searched in front of female guards? Try being laid out on a flat concrete slab, naked, with all four limbs shackled down for hours at a time, while female guards laugh, sneer jokes and ridicule you. Sensory deprivation? If an empty and highly isolated cell with only the absolute bare necessities is not sensory deprivation, I'll eat my pen. In 2 " years I was allowed to leave my cell, shackled and chained, maybe a dozen times. I was only taken out of the building into sunlight and fresh air maybe three times--to go to the dentist, doctor and court, one time each. Physical abuse? Picture a man with ankle shackles on, a waist chain padlocked on and handcuffed behind his back with cuffs secured to the waist chain. He's surrounded by 4 guards with mace/pepper spray and nightsticks. Now, please tell me why these guards find it necessary to kick the inmate's feet out from under him and slam him face down onto the concrete floor and then, have a reason to beat him and wrench his head back by putting his fingers in his nostrils and pulling up and back? Then, apply so much pressure on his arm and wrist that they break bones? I defy anyone to justify a use of force that extreme force on a man tied up like he was.

What you might ask was the inmate doing to solicit this treatment? Two hours earlier he had attempted to throw sink water on another guard. At the time he was abused he was acting in complete compliance with the officer's stated instructions to him. This action was done to him as retaliation. I personally witnessed this event and wrote an affidavit of what I saw and heard. The inmate reported the incident to the Department of Corrections through the prescribed grievance procedures and then with the N.C. Prisoner's Legal services that is provided to us all for assistance in legal matters. The result? Nada! Nobody believes what they don't see when it comes to prisoners. The guards know this and exploit it for the purpose of mistreating and abusing inmates.

I realize the topic here is, "What Makes a Good Corrections Officer," and that I haven't as of yet really addressed that. I wanted first briefly to illustrate the similarities of abuse inflicted in U.S prisons to those reported in Iraq, while also showing the disparity of public response.

A good corrections officer has to be first and foremost someone with the ability to interact with a very diverse group of individuals and to be willing to listen and reason out a problem rather than employing violence. A small degree of dignity will also help in the treating of inmates as fellow human beings with something approaching common decency and respect.

Education plays a major role in developing good human relations. I propose that all prospective officers be required to take at minimum a basic college entry level psychology, sociology and business management courses. They should also be required to receive a grade of at least 70% in order to become a certified corrections officer. These three primary courses are an excellent means of exposing individuals to the ethical and logical steps of interacting with diverse groups of people and understanding why people may do, or not do the things that they do.

Two other attributes that should be stressed are responsibility and accountability. The prison administration must hold their officers responsible and accountable for the abuse of the prisoners they are hired to guard. The punishment for such offenses should be more than the written or verbal reprimand that is usually, if at all, given to officers. Ensuring the guards adhere to the rules and regulations governing their conduct as state and federal employees will help to prevent the episodes of abuse that take place with frightening regularity here in U.S prisons. No, the guards don't have an easy job. It is at times violent and degrading. I would assume that a person would expect to encounter such thing upon coming into an environment that contains a confluence of our society's rejects, cast-aways and throw-aways.

The most I as a prisoner can hope for is a guard here and there that will treat me fairly as a human being and maybe influence his or her fellow officers to do the same. The most I can hope for from you as members of our society and relatives of the over 2 million men and women in U.S. prisons is that you will urge the officials in your local and state governments to institute measures addressing and preventing the torture and abuse of prisoners here in the United States prisons as you have done for the detainees in Iraq.

The judge imposed our punishment by sentencing us to a prison for a specified period of time. No one said anything about having to suffer abuse at the hands of sadistic and ignorant guards hired to watch over us.