...offenses written in the law books for which a person could be sent to the gallows to be hung by the neck until dead. The most horrible of their self-righteous executions was that of a 10 year old boy for a second offense of petty theft. This is how shit-crazy a society can get when infuriated by the fear-provoking screeching of reactive clergy and politicians of that era.

October 5, 1996

Corrections here in Ohio seems to be a hateful chaos for the most part. Ironically, I don’t mean that as a complaint, but make this statement more as simply a matter of fact. It isn’t a "worse" system than the one in Kansas; it’s just a "different" system. I had forgotten what made the Ohio prison system and prisoners different from those in Kansas, and now I have remembered. Being in the midst of it all again has jolted my memory. The Ohio system is much sleazier and the Ohio prisoners are much more sleazy than either element was in Kansas. I had actually forgotten how to defend myself against much of the evils in both aspects of prison and prisoners in and of Ohio after the changes generated and internalized in me while in the Kansas prison system. I mean the Kansas system wasn’t perfect by any means, but it wasn’t as degenerate as I find this to be here in Ohio.

Ohio has well over forty thousand prisoners, where Kansas has nearly seven thousand. Here in Ohio, so many of the Corrections Officers are so much like the inmates they supervise that it is difficult to tell the difference in their personalities and their value sets. Most of the Corrections Officers, male and female alike, are foul-mouthed and have aggressive, hateful attitudes. Most of their comments are snide, caustic, and generally disrespectful. Even if they address you as "Mr.," it is said with at least a hint of a sneer. When inmates reciprocate, the Corrections Officers seem to be more receptive and respectful than if you address them in a polite and respectful manner.

There are, however, exceptional human beings in both capacities, Corrections Officers and inmates alike. Unfortunately, both of these preferred types of humans are in extreme minority. This minority type either leave the prison setting as soon as is humanly or legally possible. Those who must remain by choice through economic demands for Officers/staff and by sentence through legal demands must learn to become faded, jaded, and cynical to survive and become part of the system they find themselves enmeshed. The few "holdouts" who try to remain true to a more humane disposition are usually mistrusted and somewhat ostracized by the other prevalent personalities in the prison setting. In other words, a polite Corrections Officer is usually viewed by his or her fellow "Hard Core" Officers and supervisors as being "soft," vulnerable misfits who are not right for the job, and usually viewed by "Hard Core" inmates as being "weak" homosexuals who are prime targets for prison games and victimizing. The polite inmate is usually viewed by the "Hard Core" Officers and "Hard Core" inmates as being "soft, weak homosexual, who is a prime target for prison games and victimizing." Unfortunately the polite Corrections Officer and polite inmate cannot find solace in eacb otber’s company because of prison rules against fraternizing. And, naturally, this minority element are both "rule" conscious and do abide by the rules.

Instead of prison officials and employees behaving in ways to encourage inmates to accept and internalize law-abiding values, it seems that they do the reverse. These people seem to internalize the inmate value sets and attitudes. I know this sounds insane, but it is true. The only thing the prison off icials and employees seem to be careful to enforce are those rules which effect the security of their jobs. Rules such as "count times" are strictly enforced when the inmates are counted periodically throughout each day for security purposes. Many of the rules enforced are done in such a manner that it is strictly for show of power ane as leverage against inmate psychological attacks of harassment against "guards who take their jobs too seriously." An incident worth citing is one where I observed a Correction Officer tell his top sleazy inmate "dogs" that a mass shakedown for home-made booze was coming and permitted the inmates to hide their booze in large trash bags on the porch--posing, as trash bags waiting for pick up--and allow the inmates to reclaim the booze when the shakedown crew left the area. In return for such "favors" the top dog sleaze-ball inmates would look out for the Officer and make his job easier in relation to keeping trouble down when he was on duty. This is the type of Officer the slick inmates want to keep in the prison setting.

I’ve used this theme in several letters to my friends in Kansas and here in Ohio, because I think it is worth making known to some people who care. I know it is actually "dangerous" to get "mouthy" even in what I write to my family and friends, but sometimes I just can’t resist the urge; especially when the system has turned its back on "non-problematic, exemplary-behaviored" inmates like myself. They have no love for people like me and therefore I will have no love for them. They do not forgive my shortcomings, and I will not forgive theirs. That’s rather pathetic on my part, but I have no "home." I’m not welcome among the "cops" or the "robbers." I am in a "no-man’s-land" where I belong to neither psychopathic group. I belong to the "human" race rather than the race of my skin color. And for this, I am shunned and even scorned. But I will fight back, with my dying breaths, because I fear no evil.. .anymore. I have been evil-acting and I am still protected by its dark cloak among my prisoner peers. The authorities despise me when I step out of my die-cast of "evil" and behave like a whole, real, decent human being. It is too confusing for both elements.

Forgive me if I get a bit wound-up on my "soap-box" every once in a while, but it keeps me psychologica11y alive, if you know what I mean. Later! More to come...