"Human Rights or the Lack Thereof"

By: Nasir Wali Muhsin

My experience, just as thousands of my fellow inmates, is that which lie in the bed of "disenfranchisement and displacement", which in essences causes a huge communication gap between correctional officers/faculty and us inmates!

Most of Wisconsin's, and I'm sure most of America's, prisons are built in areas or just outside of areas which are mainly populated by career farmers or small town people - people who've had very little to no experience with "inner-city or urban people" or in essences those of us who come from very fast lane or fast pace livelihoods, not to mention that there's also a crucial racial gap between correctional officers/faculty and inmates, wherein at best you'll have an institution populated with 8-900 inmates - 80% of which are black/red/brown and who come from urban cities, yet the institution's staff is 99% white - come from very small towns and have no experience in "communicating" with urban let alone the black/brown/red inmates!

This in turn is the breeding ground for a very tense and negative environment, as you'll have correctional staff talking to and ordering inmates in ways un-humanely - shouting at us as if cattle - and talking to us as if scum without the least hint or tone of respect!

To top that off you have these institutions which actually became the main "economical force" of these small towns, which in essence means that you'll have entire families, either by blood or marriage, staffing them - not to mention that too the D.A. & sheriff and local county officials are related to these correctional officers and faculty members, which in most cases gives correctional officers and faculty the incentive to abuse their authority - giving them room to say and do things which provoke emotional and aggressive reactions from inmates, then they'll turn it around to make it appear as if we the inmates are in the wrong!

One might be apt to say: "Well, you should use the inmate complaint system or file suits against the staff/institution"! Good thinking, but do you not recall me mentioning that we'll 9 times out of 10 be complaining to the father, uncle, cousin, spouse, son, brother etc of the person you're complaining about?! And that he/she has several fellow family members or childhood/family friends working in that same institution, which means the "fact of retaliation"! If you file your complaint with the county sheriff or D.A.'s office, it's most likely met with brute rejection due to the fact that both the sheriff and D.A. are directly related to those you complain about - however! As soon as we the inmates are caught with a shoelace untied or asking to be humanly respected, we get the book of penalties dropped on our shoulders! :/

To make matters worse! There's our so-called "justice or appeals system", which is so COMPLEX that the average inmate has not a clue of how to navigate it and as for those of us who do know how to navigate it, the courts have perfected the art and skill of twisting, rejecting and ignoring your arguments, claims and case that you lose focus on the issues you filed, trying to debate issues that the courts/state's D.A.(s) twisted into your filings, which in essence if you have no support or financial backing, you'll end up so exhausted that you'll give up the fight for your "human rights and freedom"!! :/

"Communication" is KEY when dealing with people, no matter the ethnicity or upbringing! You can't expect to talk to everyone the same way you talk to cattle and animals, then demand respect from them! :|

The DOCCS at least in Wisconsin are doing nothing or at best very little to close this gap in communication, let alone correct the problem of displacement/disenfranchisement! It appears that their only concern is economizing these small towns across America while herding the majority of black/brown/red urbanized and povertized people into their system to justify "economical growth"!!!! :(

Criminal Justice - Human Rights or the Lack Thereof!?!?!?!

I am: Nasir Wali Muhsin

Please see more of my blogs! http://betweenthebars.org/blogs/697