The journal of Deandre Howard
April 8th, 2007
Can you imagine yourself in someone else's shoes? I try to put myself in the shoes of whom I call my oppressors; the c/o's, the judicial system, police, congress and legislatures, public defenders, attorney general and/or district attorneys. The result...almost unimaginable. Take for example a c/o (correctional officer) here at Corcoran working in Ad-Seg. Now to put myself in his shoes, see things from his perspective, will automatically conflict with my reality of experience. In his shoes, I have a family to support, I live in an upper middle-class community, like anyone; I like some of my co-workers and some I don't. I work in a maximum security prison with some of the notorious criminals known in America: Charlie Manson, Surhau-surhau, the skid-row slasher, the zebra killer, etc etc. Not to mention the gang members, rapists and pedophiles.
I must stop right there in imagining myself in the shoes of this unnamed c/o whom works in Ad-Seg. Why? Well, it would be virtually impossible to separate my own views of this c/o even if I tried my damndest to forgo my biases.
Granted! Say I do still try to see and experience things in the shoes of this c/o and alleviate as much bias of my personal views and perspective as to experiences, the inherent residue from my own perspective will only have me to glorify and anglicize this c/o because I'm trying to refrain from my won views, whereas there is no middle ground-you are either good or bad, period.
Now that I have summarized the obstacles in this scenario according to the above said...with that in mind, I still am going to put on those c/o boots and uniform, put on my utility belt equipped with a 1 metal pole that extends at the push of a button, my M-K can of pepper spray, my handcuffs, and a personal alarm button.
Now remember the up-bringing of this c/o in a middle class community, had a mother or father (or both), some family disputes, but all in all a very well-off life...attended a bourgeois type of high school, played some sports, went to a prom and eventually married his high school sweetheart. Now he's fresh out of the military, let's say...the marines! Now he lives in northern California where prisons are more abundant then colleges. He applies to be a c/o, he's in-accepted.
Now he's working in Corcoran, a prison "notorious" for corruption and murders and police (c/o) sadistic behavior. He's new, remember that. Susceptible to conformity, to the order of c/o's are bros or c/o's against prisoners; c/o's the untouchable. At every corner he turns a c/o talks to him and plans in his mind the view that the media has already painted of the wretched inhabitants of prisons and their backgrounds, so they tell him that these "assholes" got all the privileges... man they even get to sue us" he tells him: "you gotta be firm with these "jerks" cause they'll take you as soft and use you, it's the best that you just work your hours and get that fat paycheck for babysitting these "fuckers," they're nothing but a bunch of "dickheads" anyways.
Slowly but surely he conforms in order not to be the lone outcast in corruption, subsequently his conscience turns to stone, he doesn't see a prisoners as a human being of emotions and problems, and capable of mistakes. He has now clamored every prisoner in categories, in groups...no one is individual in their personalities or given ample opportunity to be seen as an individual human with unique qualities, discovered or undiscovered.
He looks and sees "inmates" all in the same clothing, prison blues, some black some white, and some in between. Whatever prisoner he might talk to through a line of two of communication, he only knows that prisoner either by word of mouth from his collegues or from files (paperwork), the latter is usually the source. Like most prisoners who have a bit of human being mentality, will have a record or sort for rebelling against some form of harsh treatment or sadistic rule or action. Not to say he's violent or dangerous, but human in his action to fight to be treated as a man and respected as such.
Nevertheless, he c/o can care less about the prisoner wanting respect or anything else...the prisoner is only a job and is to be treated as such, accordingly. The authorities in the upper echelon are geniuses in repressing and oppressing the prisoners, they assure that the prison program will be centered in violence and so-called lockdowns. The goal is to keep the focus off of the officials and center it around the prisoners amongst themselves. How so? Simply, tribalism, sectarian beefs, racial conflicts, boundary trespassing... and what do you get: prisoner and prisoner war, racial riots, internal riots and the upper echelon cries to the government about needing more money because the prisoners are out of hand, they cry that they need more money for staff. The government rejects their request because California Department of Corrections (CDC) has the richest union in the country: 1.5 billion and growing (perhaps more). Now the upper echelon has to resort to plan B: he issues a memorandum.
Now you might be wondering what kind of plan is that, right? See now the regular old c/o's at the bottom of the ranks, who gotta deal with the prisoner's outrage personally while the upper echelon watch from a sky view with popcorn and sodas. Do you see? Alright, now that the upper authorities passed these rules, the regular c/o's have to enforce the un-colleagues they go cell to cell searching people's belongings, making them either send the new contraband home or dispose of it by the institutional methods. All the while the prisoner's are infuriated over these frivolous, sadistic new rules, the tension between the regular c/o's and the prisoners are tight to the breaking point. Finally the new c/o searches John Doe's cell, ransack his property as he's been taught, snatch his pictures off the wall, both of his family and favorite celebrities, throws his mattress on the floor, tears off the sheets, walks all over his sheets and clothes with his dusty filthy c/o boots, and takes both.
Several weeks later, the new c/o is rushed off to a hospital via helicopter with punctured lungs and bladder, he has 14 stabs wounds...John Doe lost it! The new c/o died in a coma. John Doe was immediately sentenced to death row. Now the new c/o's colleagues are bent on retaliation, they severely beat many of John Doe's associates, and the war is on!
Meanwhile, authorities of the upper echelon take the planned crisis to renew his request for more money to hire more c/o's... he even pushes to have a new prison built... granted! And the pattern continues with ingenuity.
How you view this scenario will be based solely on your views and way of seeing things, be it bias or not. I realize I've strayed form the course of my initial writing but journal writing has a course of its own!... called random selection.
This whole story is hypothetic, but has many traits of the truth of prison reality. What you say can easily shape the very views of whom you speak to. I believe it's a proverb that says: "It's not what goes in the mouth, but what comes out that defiles it." However one looks at it, I told this story from my own view...so from the beginning it was entered behind my perspective, what do you think the media has done? How do you think a jury sees one of these prisoners when they deliberate? What do you think the public defender sees the defendant as when he has over 171 cases similar to it? What do you think the judge sees when thousands of defendants have sat before him? What do you think the patrol officer thinks when he pulls over a car full of black men? Who do you think the legislators and congress have in mind when they pass certain laws like the "Rico Act", "Three strikes," "The Rockefeller Law," etc, etc? Who? Who shapes these views of these officials, what role do you play?