Dec. 4, 2025

Who to Give the Finger To in the Prison System

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by Eric Wilkes (author's profile)
uploaded Nov. 29, 2025.  Original (PDF)pdf
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Iconoclassy Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago. ✓ Mailed 3 weeks, 2 days ago   Favorite
I realise you said there will be follow ups to this post, but it seems to deserve some reply now.
Am I correct in assuming you, as a prisoner yourself, believe that the "finger of blame" (which so far as I can tell could just as easily be the middle as the index) should be pointed by prisoners at prisoners? It seems a bit like a slave on a transport ship directing his anger at the person next to him for getting his diarrhea all over him, or for trying to stretch his tragically cramped limbs in the hold where they are the cargo. Perhaps these neighbors-in-misery could behave in ways more optimal for each others' comfort, but at the same time, who is REALLY to blame there for the discomfort? The less than perfectly considerate fellow slave-to-be, fellow kidnapping victim, or the people who forced him into that god-forsaken boat to begin with?
Many of us out here will uphold your right as a prisoner in a deeply injust system to complain as you see fit, and I suppose that has to extend even to those who choose to point the finger at their co-sufferers rathen than at their captors. But perhaps you'd reconsider a bit?

In peace and solidarity.

Fr.John Posted 1 month, 1 week ago. ✓ Mailed 3 weeks, 2 days ago   Favorite
I've heard my fair share of hustles, and not all are corrupt. Some are however, and whether they are linked to the system or linked to other offenders, profiting to the detriment of the other is morally wrong. Justification and rationalization doesn't change the fact that by just "doing what I have to, to get by," makes someone else's time...harder. The prisoner code may say some hustles are acceptable that the prison code disallows, and vice versa. That doesn't even matter in ethics; in ethics, the end does not justify the means. If both codes say the hustle is acceptable, I would wager no other offender suffers for its use. I could give examples but I chose not to jam up anyone's game. The house I lived, in my youth, had a motto everyone laughed at: "Desperate men...desperate measures." I understand know exactly how humorless that motto is.

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