On The Correctional Faculty

see note for reviewers.

the megajails are coming &

with them, the richest country in the world which

without any irony whatsoever,

continues to lock up the largest percentage of its own citizens in the world &

then throws away the key,

hoping to never hear from the incarcerated again---

as the population of prisoners in this country swells,

revenue increases,

brought in by the building of prisons &

the stockpiling of

inmates---

and at present, most stand with hands supposedly tied,

watching the wicked weave their web.

 

in 2007 alone,

“the bureau of prisons budgeted $5 billion dollars for

182,000 federal inmates”---

that is well below the proposed $30+ billion that is spent a year

on prisons in the US,

and so there is a “prison market,”

one in which

private companies to sink their teeth into

everything from the need for cells ($14,000-$18,000 a piece)

to modernized & specialized security devices ($1.5 billion dollar market) &

if you are really interested, you have the moola, and you’re an aspiring

entrepreneur,

you can attend the annual

American Correctional Association convention

(the next one is in january, the 20^th-25^th in phoenix, arizona)

where every new gadget to make imprisoning people in this country

easier & more profitable for those interested

can be viewed, tried out, etc.---

it is like an electronics convention for

oppressors.

 

what we’ve got here

is much more than a failure to communicate---

for what has been happening for years is only

intensifying---

our behavior as a society is not one in which we even attempt to rehabilitate,

medicate or give therapy anymore---

instead,

a very very small fraction of the population

which owns everything & thrives from the

desecration, degradation & detriment of

others within these borders,

has found new ways to profit from the collective misery of those that it deems

“correctable.”

 

how long this unsustainable process will be able to play its game of

make-believe

is anybody’s guess,

but the reality is that when people are locked up

they generally are not happy with those that locked them up &

so if you are out here,

walking around free,

as if none of this concerns you...

you need to wake up.

 

the ignorance & silence concerning those that this country

considers its

garbage,

needs to be addressed,

and a sense of justice must be reinvigorated

(if one believes it ever existed in the first place)---

it has to be commanded by those that have been sleeping,

for those that fill their bank accounts with the money rolling in

are just going to cash out

and fly to the moon,

or one of the private islands being built in international waters.

 

you & i will be the only ones left on the outside when the gates finally come crashing down.

 

so,

the clock is ticking &

one needs to take a side---

best you hurry up

now.

Author's Note

“I start from the supposition that the world is topsy-turvy, that things are all wrong, that the wrong people are in jail and the wrong people are out of jail, that the wrong people are in power and the wrong people are out of power, that the wealth is distributed in this country and the world in such a way as not simply to require small reform but to require a drastic reallocation of wealth. I start from the supposition that we don't have to say too much about this because all we have to do is think about the state of the world today and realize that things are all upside down. Daniel Berrigan is in jail-A Catholic priest, a poet who opposes the war-and J. Edgar Hoover is free, you see. David Dellinger, who has opposed war ever since he was this high and who has used all of his energy and passion against it, is in danger of going to jail. The men who are responsible for the My Lai massacre are not on trial; they are in Washington serving various functions, primary and subordinate, that have to do with the unleashing of massacres, which surprise them when they occur. At Kent State University four students were killed by the National Guard and students were indicted. In every city in this country, when demonstrations take place, the protesters, whether they have demonstrated or not, whatever they have done, are assaulted and clubbed by police, and then they are arrested for assaulting a police officer.”

-taken from the essay, “The Problem is Civil Obedience,” by Howard Zinn