LIPSTICK ON THE PIG
"Just Die In Prison"

by: Timothy J. Muise

This past week here at the state gulag here in Shirley Massachusetts they held a public safety audit where state inspectors come in and inspect the prison. It is a true joke in so many absurd ways but the biggest laughs come at the expense of the guards who run around and try to put the lipstick on the pig. This prison is a public safety debacle and no amount of floor wax and watered-down cleaning chemicals can solve that tragic fact. It is a funny way to watch these fools but it also is a very sad situation as you witness so clearly how little prison staff care about public safety and rehabilitation. They care nothing about human beings. One of my best friends, a true prison conversion/rehabilitation success story was transferred from his good-behavior-earned single occupancy cell due to the fact that his iron clad bed was not made properly. Now that may not seem too sever to someone who is on the outside looking in but it could result in a fine man losing his freedom. You see this man is a parole-eligible lifer who will have to answer to the parole board as to why he was recycled for disciplinary reasons. Remember the offense was not making his bed properly. This man's bed has been made the same way for years. Just because some suit wearing females who run the gulag got their asses chewed out due to the fact that their prison is real shithole. They chose this day, this audit day to will their abusive sword of power and make an arbitrary capricious decision which can cause a rehabilitated his freedom.

Why would gulag staff do this to a model prisoner? Because he's not their model. He's a self-made man. He did not grovel to prison staff. He did not turn quasi informant as they would wish. But choose to seek out other good men in prison and learn from them, how they transformed their lives in prison. He made the decision to turn to God and be an active member in the church. He chose to play a role in the lives of youth and work to improve the program offered here at the prison. He chose to do this with autonomous of the hypocrites that run the prison. This goes against the jailors model of rehabilitation. If you are someone like this man, a success story made independent of the jailor's system, they resent you. It proves that they are just turnkeys for self preservation only. Men like Shawn pull the curtain away from the wizard, and they can't have that.

Shawn is a good and compassionate friend. I have witnessed him put his heart and soul into the operations of the Catholic Church here. I have seen first hand his dedication to the Alternative to Violence program where he assists violent offenders in obtaining skills to act in pro-social ways. Shawn is a trusted confidant, reliable worker, man of strong faith, and the type of person any citizen would want to emerge from prison. All these things mean absolutely nothing to the abusive prison system or hypocritical gulag staffer.

The bottom line here is never believe the "spin" prison staffers put on the dangerousness of those "human beings" who inhabit our prisons. Don't drink the Kool-Aid or be mesmerized by their pixie-dust. Prison is not about rehabilitation for them; it is a jobs program. For the jailer, prison is about retribution and all that is ugly within our culture. Thank God that men like Shawn Fisher can overcome that burden and truly transform. He is a testimony to the power of the human spirit. The lipstick covered pig created by the jailer cannot hold good men like Shawn back. Please support him and get involved.