letters:inside
Shortly after beginning my blog, I began to wonder if other inmates might appreciate the chance to speak on a public platform. While there isn't exactly a nationally organized government suppression of inmate culture (admittedly an easy target for debate), the war on drugs has sired policies which deem much of inmate correspondence and literature as contraband, when not treated as an outright, indistinct criminal threat. These policies are typically vague as they are widespread.
Additionally, there is a widely held belief that inmates are equal parts guilty, evil, and unrepentant. American society easily dismisses its inmate populations nationwide, at a significant expense. Until coming to prison myself, I cared nothing for prisoners and knew nothing about the justice system. I trusted it was doing its job effectively, rationally, and efficiently. Today, I can at least attest to Colorado's failure in all three respects. I can only speculate as to the validity of other states' justice systems.
That being said, let's not be naive. I am well aware that there are some sick people in the justice system. The battle between the rehabilitative perspective and the punitive one is an argument that seems to be standing still at the moment; and I'm not sure where I stand, except to say I have tended to notice that knee-jerk reactions are too quickly implemented without adequate forethought. I am also aware that many people would rather inmates not have a voice at all.
While there are significant amounts of, let's say, dubious views, correspondences and literature in prisons, it's possible that these are a disproportionate representative for inmates on the whole. Fear-based, ignorant perceptions affect many people in society; not least among these the inmates themselves, and much of negative inmate behavior seems, at least to me, to stem from a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. This concerns society since most prisoners are not in here for life, nor should they be.
While, in an altruistic sense, I can provide some of the people I'm incarcerated with a chance to be heard; selfishly it adds more content to my site for readers to digest. The general populace's morbid curiousity in this regard is well documented.
At first, I thought I would receive all sorts of material with content ranging from the insane to the imaginative to the obscene, with perhaps a few insightful remarks here and there.
Presently, I've been offered a mere handful of letters. They bear some resemblence to one another, in the sense that they were intended for congressmen, senators, and governors, have been mailed in the past, and had no effect at all. Are you surprised? Perhaps you will be.