MASTERING WORD$, NOT DEED$

Semantics: a noun, the study of meanings in language.

In California's penal system, there seems to be little conformity in semantics. Words, terms, and definitions are used as a means to an end. Political correctness and political machinations.

For example: the Penal Code Part 1. reads: "Of Crimes and Punishments." Prison officials call their system California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (CDCR), promoting and emphasizing "REHABILITATION."

Now, to the mind of the average person, this sounds great. They are rehabilitating prisoners. However, if a curious person looks behind the curtain, they would find these words do not match the deeds, since approximately 70% of prisoners are recidivists. Rehabilitation is almost nonexistent. A return rate of anything over 50% would have to be deemed a failure.

Would you buy any product or service that was advertised as "ONLY 50% ARE RETUNED"? No consumer with half a brain would pay or waste good money on such a claim.

Yet California taxpayers fork out an astounding $14 billion a year to operate CDCR. Could it be rehabilitation rings much better and more productive than punishment? A semantic device to patronize the electorate. Who would want to think their tax dollars are being used to punish old men to death? "Rehabilitation" is being used to explain why 70 and 80 year-old men with a multitude of health and physical problems, unfit for any meaningful employment, let alone be a menace to society, are in fact punished to death. Or to be politically correct: "rehabilitated" to death.

Semantic devices are ubiquitous: prisoners are "inmates." You will not find a trusty, they are clerks, porters, and workers. No one goes to the hole, it's "Administrative Segregation." But still a form of punishment is a form of punishment. Or to be politically correct: "Rehabilitative Program." A prison cell is your "house." It's still a cell. There are no cell-blocks, they are buildings now.

Draconian sentences are longer than any time in history, but the semantics are softer and more politically correct. The publish is assured CDCR is doing a good job and is a humane place.

Then there are the guards, or the Correctional Officers as they prefer. "Officer" is a title that defines a professional person, a sentient. A person of high standards and trust.
An officer would never maliciously treat or abuse a prisoner.
An officer would never bully the elderly defenseless human beings or leave a pepper-sprayed prisoner to die on the concrete floor of a prison cell.
An officer would never force a helpless old man into a cell, with a known violent prisoner who would murder that old man. An officer would never cause a prisoner to suffer needlessly.
An officer would never compromise his ethics to conform with a group of bullying guards.
An officer would set a standard of excellence for prisoners to model.

Such officers exist. However, they are few and far between.

Could it be "Officer" instead of guard is used by the union to present a professional image? To justify why CDCR "Correctional Officers" are the highest paid guards in the world? And why California is the only state that pays their guards more than their school teachers?

Refined verbiage, like a Potemkin Village, can conceal reality for only so long.

The reality is California operates the most costly prison system in the nation, yet it holds the highest record for prisoner suicides, murders, and natural deaths.

When hate, indifference, and resentment are cultivated like a farmer cultivates his crops, there should be no surprise to those records and staggering recidivism numbers. Rehabilitation is virtually nonexistent. No statistics are available, as to job placement of prisoners who received "rehabilitation" vocation skills taught in prison. No statistics are availble as to parolee unemployment.

When the media is denied access to prisons, because of "safety and security reasons, one has to question: is this a semantic device too? Ignoring or palliating facts does not make them any less factual.

The electorate has to demand: it's not what you are saying, it's what you are doing. Question the Wizard, and look behind the curtain!

20 August 2015

Robert H. Outman
Prisoner P-79939

http://betweenthebars.org/blogs/895/