THANKSGIVING DAY 2014
As Told to Timothy Muise
By Darin Bufalino

November 2014

Let me share with you some of the things I am thankful for this Thanksgiving Day. Before I do, some will recall by the byline that I have been quiet lately. Today I am putting pen to paper in an effort to dissipate an explosive amount of negative energy into something positive.

The day starts off in typical fashion with this remark, "You f—ing guys don't know how good you have it. Just imagine if you were in one of those foreign prisons. You think you would be fed as well?" Coming from one of the many "Mensa" members moonlighting as a Massachusetts Department of Corrections correctional officer.

Full disclaimer: I am presently serving a state sentence (MCI Shirley) and have served time in a federal penitentiary (USP Lewisburg). And I had the misfortune of spending almost four years in one of "those foreign prisons" (Carabenchel, Spain). So, I do not need to imagine anything.

What I have a hard time imagining is why this obviously ill-informed correctional officer, who was only 45 minutes into his shift, would purposely antagonize an inmate population already downtrodden on this holiday. Which has come to represent the reuniting of family from far-flung places together at the dinner table?

On any other day, this prison guard would be spouting his usual refrain, "You don't like it, don't come to prison!" In the paragraph above, I referred to this guard as a genius, and I will explain my reasoning shortly.

All agree the system is broken. Mass incarceration does not make our communities safer—just the opposite. There are many points of view on how to fix the system, none of which will work because of the politics of mass incarceration. And that incarcerating men and women in this country is big business, big money, and big profits.

Darin Bufalino is due to be released in 2017. His family and friends are anxiously awaiting his return to society. They have done what they can to support him during his incarceration plan and his re-entry as a productive member of the community. More importantly, he has a plan, and that plan does not include ever letting the DOC abuse him or his family again.

For all you "Mensa" members who want to know, barring some torture palace in the Siberian tundra, food in foreign prisons are not processed by-products, cost effective meal replacements, or some other kind of artificial substance dished out by a contract vendor. It may only be rice and beans, but it is wholesome and natural.