I just saw this article in the New York Times that made me think of you. I'm copying it below. I also reached out to the author to share your work - hope that's okay!
The article is too long, so I'm putting it in two comments.
Susan
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR When Prisoners Protest
By WILBERT RIDEAU Published: July 16, 2013
THERE aren’t many protests in prison. In a world where authorities exercise absolute power and demand abject obedience, prisoners are almost always going to be on the losing side, and they know it.
The typical inmate doesn’t want trouble. He has little to gain and too much to lose: his job, his visits, his recreation time, his phone privileges, his right to buy tuna, ramen and stale bread at inflated prices in the commissary. The ways even a bystander to the most peaceful protest can be punished are limited only by the imagination of the authorities. Besides, logistics are difficult: men from cellblock X can’t just stroll down to see the inmates in cellblock Y. Strategizing must be done furtively, usually through intermediaries, any one of whom might snitch.
And yet, sometimes things get so bad that prisoners feel compelled to protest, with work stoppages, riots or hunger strikes. On July 8, some 30,000 inmates in the custody of the California Department of Corrections went on a hunger strike to demand improvements in prison conditions. Their biggest complaint was the runaway use of solitary confinement, the fact that thousands of prisoners are consigned to this cruelty indefinitely, some for decades.
I know something about solitary confinement, because I’ve been there. I spent a total of 12 years in various solitary confinement cells. And I can tell you that isolating a human being for years in a barren cell the size of a small bathroom is the cruelest thing you can do to a person.
Deprived of all human contact, you lose your feeling of connectedness to the world. You lose your ability to make small talk, even with the guard who shoves your meal through the slot in the door. You live entirely in your head, for there is nothing else. You talk to yourself, answer yourself. You become paranoid, depressed, sleepless. To ward off madness, you must give your mind something to do. In 1970, I counted the 358 rivets that held my steel cell together, over and over. Every time the walls seemed to be closing in on me, I counted them again, to give my mind something to fasten on to.
There are men like Thomas Silverstein, in the federal prison system, who has been in solitary 30 years, and Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who have been in Louisiana cells for some 40 years each. These men become examples of abuse of power and sometimes a rallying point for their fellow prisoners, who know they could one day face the same fate.
Antonio Dowdy from Garden Plain, Ks, is this you? It's Brody haukap. I feel terrible about what happened. Stay strong my friend you have all of our support here man. Miss your crazy ass.
Thanks for writing! I finished the transcription for your post. I think the American prison system leaves a lot to be desired, punishing rather than rehabilitating, we are working on this in England (where I live) at the moment. I hope that people listen and make changes. Keep writing.
I could say that god blessed you with a creative mind that gives the soul a peaceful comfort when its in a state of destruction. you are truly blessed and i idolize your way of thinking
Thanks for writing! I finished the transcription for your post.
Great writing! I believe that there is no such thing as a coincidence. Everything does happen for a reason and you are never in the wrong place at the wrong time. Life is indeed, what we make it. But it also has a lot to do with how we think. If we are constantly thinking negatively then we will only have negative things keep happening to us. We need to feel JOY no matter what the circumstances. We mustn't let anyone take away our JOY.
Thanks for writing! I finished the transcription for your post.
I love the new poem! Your poems reflect what is inside you and when it's pain and lonliness, then I guess that could be considered dark, but it's raw and real emotion.
RSS
I just saw this article in the New York Times that made me think of you. I'm copying it below. I also reached out to the author to share your work - hope that's okay!
The article is too long, so I'm putting it in two comments.
Susan
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
When Prisoners Protest
By WILBERT RIDEAU
Published: July 16, 2013
THERE aren’t many protests in prison. In a world where authorities exercise absolute power and demand abject obedience, prisoners are almost always going to be on the losing side, and they know it.
The typical inmate doesn’t want trouble. He has little to gain and too much to lose: his job, his visits, his recreation time, his phone privileges, his right to buy tuna, ramen and stale bread at inflated prices in the commissary. The ways even a bystander to the most peaceful protest can be punished are limited only by the imagination of the authorities. Besides, logistics are difficult: men from cellblock X can’t just stroll down to see the inmates in cellblock Y. Strategizing must be done furtively, usually through intermediaries, any one of whom might snitch.
And yet, sometimes things get so bad that prisoners feel compelled to protest, with work stoppages, riots or hunger strikes. On July 8, some 30,000 inmates in the custody of the California Department of Corrections went on a hunger strike to demand improvements in prison conditions. Their biggest complaint was the runaway use of solitary confinement, the fact that thousands of prisoners are consigned to this cruelty indefinitely, some for decades.
I know something about solitary confinement, because I’ve been there. I spent a total of 12 years in various solitary confinement cells. And I can tell you that isolating a human being for years in a barren cell the size of a small bathroom is the cruelest thing you can do to a person.
Deprived of all human contact, you lose your feeling of connectedness to the world. You lose your ability to make small talk, even with the guard who shoves your meal through the slot in the door. You live entirely in your head, for there is nothing else. You talk to yourself, answer yourself. You become paranoid, depressed, sleepless. To ward off madness, you must give your mind something to do. In 1970, I counted the 358 rivets that held my steel cell together, over and over. Every time the walls seemed to be closing in on me, I counted them again, to give my mind something to fasten on to.
There are men like Thomas Silverstein, in the federal prison system, who has been in solitary 30 years, and Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who have been in Louisiana cells for some 40 years each. These men become examples of abuse of power and sometimes a rallying point for their fellow prisoners, who know they could one day face the same fate.
Jon's at:
Jonathan Crowell-W97641
PO Box 207
So. Carver, MA 02366
Great writing! I believe that there is no such thing as a coincidence. Everything does happen for a reason and you are never in the wrong place at the wrong time. Life is indeed, what we make it. But it also has a lot to do with how we think. If we are constantly thinking negatively then we will only have negative things keep happening to us. We need to feel JOY no matter what the circumstances. We mustn't let anyone take away our JOY.
I love the new poem! Your poems reflect what is inside you and when it's pain and lonliness, then I guess that could be considered dark, but it's raw and real emotion.