Puppies in prison

June 17, 2015: 11:00am: Listening to: whats next by: Godsmack
Buongiorno everyone, today I want to introduce everyone to Preston.
Preston is a brown poodle that loves treats, loves to be petted and he
certainly loves to play in the snow. Preston is about 8 months old now.
Sadly, he has severe allergies and has been sent out of the prison until
they can determine his allergies and treat him for them. He'll be missed
because he is a very playful and lovable little pup. I apologize for this
picture. it is not the best. It came out blurry and well that's that. But
I recently took another photo with a big puppy named Tyco. That will be
posted when I get copies made.
Dogs are therapeutic, especially for us prisoners. The dog training
program in prison is pretty special to alot of us. I'm an animal lover.
Shit, I get yelled at for feeding the birds bread from my own tray. A
question was recently asked if I thought it would be a good idea to let
the prisoners being locked up in the hole ( or RHU, SEG., SHU, the name
may differ but they are all the same thing) if I thought it was a good
idea to let guys in the hole to see, touch, feed and interact with the
puppy dogs in here. I think it would be amazing for them all and it would
benefit the men trapped in the hole who want one of 2 things, to get out
and interact with people or to kill themselves. I have met dozens of men
in the hole who have hurt themselves, cutting, hanging, starvation, or
just smashing their heads into a wall. When you're in the hole, with
nothing to do, nothing to look forward to, life seems hopeless. I watched
a nice documentary on PBS last night. Check it out when you have time.
It is very realistic. In my 17 years in PA state prisons, I have seen,
or been in the hole while over 1 dozen men have committed suicide. They
don't change the rules because they just don't care. We're deemed weak
because mens minds break after being locked in a small room with nothing
in it. No human contact. no phone, most of your mail is normally thrown
away by guards. Your food gets spit in if you piss the guards off.
Sometimes they won't even feed you. But it's your word against theirs so
they stick together, lie and say we fed him and that's that. We're deemed
liars because we're in prison. I've been starved before. Once I wasn't
fed by guards for 4 days. But I don't bother complaining because there
is no one to listen. When you go to the hole, it's not for a few days,
sometimes it's for years. Most of the time it's 3 months on average. I
know alot of people on the outside just don't care, they say "why should
I care, they did this to themselves, they did the crime" but it's beyond
that. Every human being deserves to be treated decently. No one deserves
to be starved or have roaches put in their food or spit on. And that
includes staff. They have a hard job, they don't deserve to be assaulted
or spit on but when it does happen, it's not right that everyone from
politicians on down all turn their backs on the abuse in PA state prisons.
I spit on a guard once. He didn't feed me dinner because I told him he's
an asshole, then he took my mail and threw it in the trash can right in
front of my face. So 2 days later, when he did feed me dinner, I spit
on him. I never got my mail. I was still angry. I was 22 years old at
the time. They turned off the video cameras, 8 guards came into my cell
and beat me, choked me, and broken almost everything I owned. Abuse in
America's prisons happen every day, many times per day. But the hole, or
solitary, it breaks your mind, your spirit, your will to live. Check it
out, google solitary confinement. And go to this:
PBS.ORG/FRONTLINE
Look for "inside the rise of solitary", pretty powerful story. But to
take a puppy dog down to meet the guys, let them feed the puppy some
treats, play fetch, it would work wonders with the prisoners minds and
spirits. Remember, most of these men will come home one day and they will
come home as broken men with broken spirits who will re-offend.
Solitary confinement (the hole) was created in the 1800's as a way
to deter prisoners from getting into more trouble. It was abandoned due
to it being labeled as a total failure. It made prisoners worse, but in
the 1980's, the U.S.A. began locking more & more prisoners in the hole
in an attempt to end gang violence. That failed too. But this has become
the way of our country. Lock everyone up so we don't have to deal with
them. It has stopped being about rehabilitation.
But let's get back to puppies in prison. Being able to interact with
them, after not even seeing a dog in 17 years, this is an amazing feeling
and I hope every prison gets a puppy program up & running. Well I guess
that's all for this week. I haven't been writing as much as I once did
but that's because prison is extremely boring! Any questions, please feel
free to ask. My family had a pretty big family reunion in Bucks county
so I am waiting to get some pictures of everyone. My little cousins,
Rhiannon, Desiree, Ashley, Brittney & Tiffany, they were all little kids
when I was home. Now they are all grown women with kids of their own.
I probably won't even recognize them. But i'm still excited to see them.
Well thanks for reading. Take care, enjoy the summer and god bless. Ciao