This last weekend I saw Assistant Warden Stansel on television. He does these short video clips occasionally to let the population know about things the administration has decided or to answer questions brought to him by prisoners that have an effect on all prisoners. The fellas appreciate the effort, usually.
Stansel's message this time started by letting the prisoners in G and J Units know that the air conditioning problem that has them freezing in the mod's open areas, but baking in the cells, was being addressed: they called experts and the problem should be fixed soon. Also, one of those units is without hot water, and has been for awhile. For them, they are buying a whole new boiler, so that problem should be fixed sometime later this week.
While that was all well and good, Stansel closed out his short video by letting prisoners know that the policy announced in his last appearance had been rescinded. [If I haven't written about that, then I am sorely remiss.] That "new policy' stated that prisoners giving dirty u.a.'s (aka: urine samples found to be positive for drugs) would lose their visits for a year and they would be kept in the Hole for as long as they thought necessary. I must also add that Stansel had stated that the "new policy" was founded on the premise that the authority to pursue the harshest drug policy possible had been granted to them by "President Bush." However, in this weekend's message rescinding the "new policy," he clarified that the appropriate State contracting authorities hadn't actually approved the policy. Notwithstanding the Letter of Marque apparently granted by the Thief in Chief, of course.
Stansel did say that another "new-er policy" was making its way through the approval process at this time: a policy that includes "maxing out" repeat offenders and increasing the number of urinalysis tests given. The new-er, improved, and approved policy is supposed to be posted by the end of the week.
The Assistant Warden closed the anti-drug portion of his video by informing us that they had made an arrest of a visitor, who had "facilitated" illicit trafficking and such, and that they believed if they kept the pressure on the visitors they could get the main supply. I don't know who he thought he was talking to when he said that, maybe they share his shows with the public, somehow, but that line certainly wasn't for prisoners' benefit. I mean, after nearly 30 years as a participant in the "correctional" process, AND not being both blind and freakin' stupid, I can say, with absolute confidence, that VISITATION IS NOT THE PROBLEM!
Yeah, yeah, I don't doubt that sometimes some things get moved through the visiting room. But, face it: with the quantity of heroin, ice, crack, pot, and tobacco that is available on the yard - in this and every other prison I've been cursed to live in - it's a sure bet that it's not moving a couple balloons-up-the-butt at a time. I mean, think about it: how many prisoners get regular contact visits? Optimistically, 10, 20, maybe 30? There are more than 1700 prisoners at this facility, most of whom were cigarette smokers before they invented a rule to make that illegal, and tobacco, alone, can be bought by the ounce or the pound! Did they hire rocket scientists to calculate the weight and load cap-ass-ity necessary to accomplish that smuggling feat?! The truth is that Stansel has the dog and handler sniffing the wrong naked butt cracks (See "It's a Dog's Life).
Don't think this is a surprise to Stansel or the rest of the CCA and State prisoncrats who are busily fashioning "new and new-er policies," either. What Stansel chose not to mention in his spiel was that, while they were rooting out contraband conspiracies in the Visiting Room, they also removed a hobbycraft supervisor after he was fingered as a mule.
What he also didn't say, and, maybe doesn't want to admit to himself, is that prison administrators and line hacks LOVE DRUGS. Considering that 90+% of prisoners coming into prison have some substance abuse issue, if prisoncrats and hacks didn't love drugs, then there would be, among other things, drug treatment to help prisoners overcome their dependency. What we do have are 40 beds in a pre-release, therapeutic community program for nearly 800 mostly long-term prisoners - housed under the Alaska Contract, not for those from Hawaii, Washington, Vermont, etc. No, if prisoncrats, hacks and the legislators who pay them didn't love drugs, there would not only be drug treatment to address the immediate drug problem, but there would also be serious education programs, vocational training, family visitation and therapy, serious life skills programs, assisted transitional living and employment counseling programs, and, of central importance, sentencing that does not deny any hope of successful release. Simply put: prisoners need a reason to hope, need something to choose over wanting to get high and stop hurting.
No, at best, prisoncrats and hacks DO NOT CARE. But, mostly, I believe they love drugs and the authority their own 'war on drugs' grants to them: just like real "cops", in their little prison world they get to pretend to be "law enforcers," who carry on "investigations," conduct "surveillance," hold "court," make "deals" to get to the "main source," exact "punishment," and so on and so forth.
The bottom line? If you don't want a drug problem and the accompanying recidivism, then address the issues that bring people to prison: ignorance, poverty, maladaptive behaviors, and the lack of the development of spiritual qualities like, honesty, trustworthiness, compassion, empathy, mercy, courage, and courtesy. Until then, prisoncrats and hacks are just self-deluded, self-righteous warehousemen in human disposal factories.
Anthony Brown 7/18/5 CCA/FCC