From June 5, 2007

After a pleasant and great night out at Po’ Monkey’s, our destination for today was the notorious and depressing Mississippi State Penitentiary called Parchman. Parchman sits on a plot of land measuring roughly 18,000 square acres where it seems to be its own little self-sustaining “community” (with that term being used very loosely). Driving into the gates of the penitentiary, I had very little expectations on a specific level, but I did believe that it would be very difficult and disturbing to witness some of the things that go on in one of the state’s three penitentiaries.
Parchman outnumbers Wake Forest undergraduate students in terms of population by a few hundred people. As an all-male, maximum security prison, I find it very odd and illogical that the majority of the workers are young black females. Not only are these young girls unable to provide the proper level of protection for themselves and the security of the prison, they are just too young to have the proper experience in dealing with hardened criminals in such an institution like Parchman. Issues of liability and accountability begin to arise just from that initial realization as we entered Parchman.
For so many reasons, it seems that the overall status of this penitentiary is to uphold the slave labor system. I think that the history of the Deep South indicates that when slavery was abolished and sharecroppers came to learn of some of their new rights, the whites in the south tried to develop new ways to imprison people and force blacks to provide free labor. The judicial system in the Delta seems to have worked against blacks by creating and upholding laws that they knew were either unjust or too harsh a punishment for the act committed.
There are glaring issues of corruption in Parchman. The first prisoner who spoke with us had so many things to say about the food, the forced farm labor, and the overall lack of protection and humane treatment while in prison. The administrative bodies that control Parchman should be held accountable for their actions, or lack thereof. The overall experience of Parchman was incredibly eye-opening.

Dear Summer Class:

This is Prof. Earl Smith.

This is my last blog (or close to my last blog):

Prisoners: Those persons (male, female, youth etc) confined to an institution (including home arrest) for reasons that they have been convicted & sentenced to a specified sentence (overall time of confinement).

Prisons: The actual place of confinement. Confusion arises when delineating a prison from a jail, from a state institution, from a federal institution. For simplicity sake a prison (qua jail) is the place convicted persons are sent to serve out their time. New to the US Justice System is the SUPERMAX PRISON. Here we have an institution (many located underground) whose sole purpose is holding the most hardened criminals in the US, many of who will never leave the SUPERMAX alive

Corrections: The treatment of offenders through a system of penal incarceration, rehabilitation, probation, and parole, or the administrative system by which these are effectuated. the department of local government that is responsible for managing the treatment of convicted offenders.

Parchman (a Mississippi State Penitentiary) is an older type of prison whose existence is built around the style and structure of the “plantation.” Hence, prisoners being held there, for the most part, carry out old style farming. Many of the farm staple goods are consumed by the inmates (beans, corn, okra, etc).

Since about the 1970s we see in the US an increase in male and female incarceration. With the change in the drug laws (most infamous are those applied in New York State under the administration of Gov. Nelson Rockefeller), more and more US citizens (and so-called illegal aliens) begin serving longer and longer sentences for violating drug laws. These lead to the now controversial “3-strikes you are out” felony convictions whereby a third felony conviction can mean life imprisonment regardless of what that 3^rd felony is. E.g., people can now go to prison for life for three drug convictions. Many crime scholars argue that these people have nothing more than a drug problem (a medical issue) and they are being WARE HOUSED in American prisons.

Important to prisons like Parchman is the issue of privatization. Although the state of Mississippi is still considering making Parchman a private prison, in the 1970s private corporations began to purchase and run American prisons. The significance of this is that prisoners are now laborers in many of these private prisons and they produce products that are purchased in the “free world.” Mostly they work for private global corporations (e.g., McDonald’s, Microsoft, Vitoria Secret, IBM etc).

At Parchman, although not a private penal institution, the production of the commodity cat fish is organized as a private production, distribution crop and sold on the world market. The cat fish industry is so lucrative for Parchman that it has knocked out of competition many of the previously successful cat fish farms in the Deep South, including Mississippi.

Hence, prisoners, prisons and corrections remain central to the study of social stratification not only in the south of the US but worldwide.

It used to be, but is no longer the case, that you could teach a social stratification course (outside of the standard criminology courses) and never have to include in the syllabus anything on the penal system. This is no longer the case.

The course was great. Have a wonderful summer.

NEWS BLAST FROM PARCHMAN

On this 20,000 acre prison farm it is routine to hear that no one escapes. It is not routine to hear that VIOLENCE is a daily occurrence. A week before our visit to Parchman (June 5, 2007) a murder took place and our visit was almost cancelled.

This morning, I am receiving information from Dr. Luther Brown (Delta Center, Cleveland State University in Cleveland Mississippi) that a few days after we visited Parchman there was an escape of an inmate working in the hospital unit (now you know why we insisted that there be no tank tops, no colored shoe laces, pull your pants up and, as we were told in the “pre-release unit” in our discussion with the two inmates - DON’T LET ANYONE PASS ANYTHING TO YOU. All of these rules are important in a place like Parchman). A few days later an inmate committed suicide (he hung himself) in Unit #32 (the unit we saw in the electronic TV monitoring room).

Today we went to Parchman, the most infamous prison in Mississippi. This was one of the days I was looking forward to the most, and it certainly did not disappoint. It was completely different from all the others days of the trip, and very interesting. The first thing we had to do this morning was adhere to the dress code, which meant no shoulders or anything else showing for the girls, no open toed shoes, boys had to be sure to wear a belt, and nobody could have any money of any sort. We also had to make sure we locked up all electronics and valuables underneath the bus. Making sure we followed all these rules further built up the anticipation for me; it was really like we were going to another world.

We started off the day in the visitor’s center, where we were greeted by Raphael, an inmate who has been imprisoned for nearly 15 years. Raphael was a very personable man, who had been a college basketball player and was in jail for dealing crack. One of the things that was reiterated today was that Mississippi is extremely tough on drug dealers, as is exemplified by the fact that Raphael was given a 30 year sentence for his first offense. He will be eligible for parole after fifteen years, and is therefore hoping to be out relatively soon. During his talk, he spoke about what it is like to have your freedom taken away and live in the harshest of environments for such a long time. He mentioned the brutality of prison life and how quickly he learned to sleep with his eyes open and with a weapon in his hand. It is hard to imagine always having to be on your guard, knowing that anyone could attack you for almost no reason whatsoever.

After Raphael and Linda from the visitor’s center spoke to us, we moved onto the building that housed the surveillance cameras. I found this to be one of the most interesting parts of the visit because we got to see firsthand what it is like inside the prisons. First of all, there was a murder in the prison last week, so things were on a bit more of a heightened security. One of the first things they showed us inside this building was a lance-like weapon that was very similar to the murder weapon. It was very creepy to see this thing that was made from a piece of the toilet and a broom stick, and demonstrated how smart and resourceful the prisoners are. When we walked into the room showing live surveillance on six different screens, the first thing I noticed was a huge puddle of red liquid in one of the hallways. It took someone asking what it was for all of our fears to be confirmed, as the workers told us it was blood from an inmate cutting his wrists. They were very nonchalant about the whole situation, saying that if he was trying to kill himself he would have done it in a different manner, and explaining how prisoners will often do things like this to go to the hospital where they will experience relative freedom and might even be able to get a cigarette. After this, we got the man working in surveillance to bring up some footage of an attack on a guard a couple weeks ago. It was UNBELIEVABLE to see a handcuffed prisoner attack a guard, throw him down on the floor, and stomp on his face until the guard just lay on the floor as the convict ran down the hallway. This was certainly the most shocking part of the day for me. I had always heard about and seen in movies the brutality that exists in prison, but to see it with my own eyes was something completely different.

The next really interesting thing we did within Parchman was go into one of the buildings that houses prisoners who are not a huge threat and are soon to be released. We all went into a room surrounded by windows that looked down into the living quarters of the inmates. It was interesting to see communal area where they sleep, hang out, and live. It became increasingly difficult to focus on the two people who spoke to us (one who dealt drugs, one who killed someone in self-defense) because it was so hot in there. There is no air conditioning in these quarters, and it was difficult to sit there for 30 minutes or so, I can’t even imagine having to live there on days when it gets to be 110 degrees. This issue with the heat is also important because of the work outside and in the fields that the convicts do. Parchman is more than just a prison, it is a huge farm with the buildings scattered around it, and the prisoners are depended on for a lot of work on this farm. It is hard to think about doing manual labor all day during the heat of the summer, and then returning to a cell where the heat just smothers you. Pretty much everything about prison life was difficult to take in, because there is not one aspect of it that is comfortable. Oh yea, and they often find bugs and eyes and more in their food! Yummy.

After our time in prison was done, we hit the road and drove up to the Gold Strike Casino. I’m happy with my winnings from our last stay at a casino, and therefore think I will try to avoid the roulette table and slot machines tonight, but we’ll see. I’ll probably be busy writing a paper all night anyways, so oh well.

We visited Parchman Penitentiary today and it was incredibly intense. First we heard an inmate talk about his life and how he got to jail. He had been a crack-cocaine dealer in California and he was driving out east to sell more drugs when he was caught in Mississippi. This man has a few daughters and a wife, and the most devastating part about being in prison for 15 years was missing out on watching his daughters grow up. One of his daughters moved into the USC dorms this past year and he was terribly sad that he could not participate in this experience. This man played basketball in college and he had a good job; I was surprised to see someone so normal convicted of a felony that resulted in 15 years of prison. The next man we talked to sold marijuana among other drugs. He was from Michigan and this was his second time being sent to prison. He told us that in Michigan, he was released on bail for the possession of marijuana, but in Mississippi he was sentenced to 15 years in prison. I couldn’t believe how different the two states were in punishment! I was also shocked to hear him talk about how tough life is in prison. I already knew about the gang rapes that often occurred in the bathroom, but he said that you always have to be aware of your surroundings because it is so violent in prison. He said that your most powerful weapon in prison (and the real world) is your mind. We learned about the food and how it is so disgusting that even the cats won’t eat it. A security guard confirmed this statement, as she said that sometimes she has to smell the food and that alone is repulsive. They eat their own vegetables from the fields, and you will often find cut up snakes and insects, because nobody cleans the vegetables.

The last man that talked to us had been charged for murder. He claims that he killed in self defense, but in the state of Mississippi that doesn’t matter. I looked at him and could not see a murderer: instead I saw an older man as normal as anyone else is. He said that in prison, it is the general understanding that murderers are better than pedophiles Murderers usually kill in the heat of the moment, where pedophiles must research and plan their attack. This group is most often the type that is killed by other inmates. Anyways, this man was very interesting to listen to and both he and the man from Michigan will be released in a few months.

While we heard the last two men talk, it was incredibly hot. The inmates do not get any air conditioning or heat. They also only receive three different outfits for each year. The second man said that there was a fight a few weeks ago and the inmates didn’t want to security guards to hear about it, so he had to wipe up all the blood with one of his three shirts. This must mean that the inmates are very careful about what they tell the guards. We also got to see footage from a few assaults in the past. We watched an inmate beat up a guard and leave him passed out on the ground. I can’t help but wonder where this rage comes from. It seems like some of the anger comes from the living conditions. For the very worst crimes, the inmates are locked in their cell for 23 hours out of the day. For the 24^th hour, they are given some time outside. But they are confined to what looks like a dog kennel! It is ridiculously small and it must be scorching hot in them. For those guys, the one with a life sentence or on death row, they will live like that forever. But for most crimes, you can move up in your ranking in prison and increasingly develop more freedom. With time you can work in the fields all day and you do not have to be locked up in a cellar all day.

I can’t help but feel sad for these men. I realized that I could never work in a prison because I couldn’t find anything wrong with the men we saw. We stood at an observation point later in the day where we could watch dozens of men hanging around, and as I looked around I only saw people just like me. There were so many people that looked my age, a disturbing thought. Why are so many people in this jail?

There are around 5,000 inmates at Parchman, 85% due to drug-related crimes, and 80-85% are black. Those inmates on death row are closer to 50/50 white/black but for the rest of the population it is mostly black. The penitentiary resembles a plantation more than a jail and it is in the heart of the Delta. It is mostly the poor who come to prison because those who can afford good lawyers get out of their punishment. Mississippi’s laws are much harsher than most all states in the US. All these facts lead to the bothersome possibility that the prison system, particularly in this state, is made for certain people. Once people get there, it is also hard to get out. The programs that this prison offers to get inmates involve creating resumes and learning how to write checks. Classes like that will barely help anyone live a meaningful life after prison. Furthermore, if you have no money and no family members once you are let go, you are not legally allowed to leave. There is one man at the prison whose sister lives near a school. She is his only family member, but since he was a sex offender and cannot live near schools, he has to stay at Parchman. It was has been over 10 years since he was “released.” Stories like this were painful to hear about and made me realize that the fallacies in prison are too big to ignore. Today was definitely one of the most startling days of this trip.

Another interesting aspect of Parchman is that young women are increasingly becoming security guards. I wasn’t that surprised about this because lately they have had trouble finding employment, and I learned in my gender class that when men leave a particular job, women tend to fill in for them. This fact is nevertheless disturbing because I do not see how young women would be able to protect themselves against powerful ex-convicts.

Parchman was the perfect example of a total institution for many reasons. Multiple people said that you can never be the same once you are enrolled at Parchman, and after visiting I believe that once you enter the grounds for a long time you are forever changed. The place was very somber and depressing; I can’t imagine even working there.

We visited the state penitentiary today and it was a sight that I never imagined. When watching movies and television shows about prisons it gives you a different prospective then what I experienced today at Parchman prison. When we arrived to the prison we were told to hide all electronic devises and money wallets and all under the bus and when we got into the visitation area we were full body searched my guards. While in the visitation area one of the prisoners spoke to us. He told us his crime and basically what he regretted doing. His story was appealing but it didn’t really strike me until he told me that he had a son that plays football and is doing great but he never seen him play a down. I felt sorry in a way but in other ways it was kind of hard to have simply for someone that committed a crime. I think that he has learned his lesson but who am I to say so. His whole speech he was telling us the reasons why you do not want to come to prison but it was one reason that I experienced for myself made me want not to ever come to prison. The heat made me make up mind to never come to prison. In the prison sell the inmates have no air condition and it’s like 80 or more people in one big hot room in the heart of the summer with no air conditioning. I found parchman to be an interesting experience but I left there with a lot of questions marks about how the prison was ran and why there were so many women and the construction of the prison.

Today was incredibly intense. We went to Parchman Prison to gain an understanding about what life in prison is like. I don’t guess that I’d ever really given it that much thought, so I didn’t go into it with very many expectations. What I saw and learned was deeply powerful. When we first got to Parchman, one of the prisoners came in and talked to us about his experience there. The stories he, and the other prisoners we spoke to throughout the day, told us were some of the most alarming I have ever heard.

I’ve never been to a prison before, most certainly not a farm prison like Parchman. It sits on 18,000 acres of land, most of which is farmland. They grown all sorts of crops, have catfish ponds, and have factory type jobs where the inmates work. So many thoughts went racing through my head when we drove past all these fields. I imagined all the men working in them, and the only images that flashed through my mind were ones of slavery. I know that these men committed crimes and should have to face the consequences, but after listening to them speak, I have to wonder about the levels that we consider to be humane treatment. We had a very interesting conversation yesterday about working in prisons. In many places, prisoners are paid a nominal wage for their services. It was interesting to hear both sides to this discussion, because I’m not sure how I feel about it. One side points out that these men are supposed to be facing punishment, so it makes little sense to take jobs away from people in the free world to give them to prisoners. The other side says that if we give prisoners a way to earn wages, when they get out, they will be less likely to return back to prison. While both are compelling arguments, I have to say that I think I would side with the second one. As a nation, the US outsources millions of low-wage jobs. If these jobs were instead given to prisoners, it would really help their families and it would increase the likelihood of them making it in the free world.

Another compelling thing I observed had to do with sentencing. It is so alarming to me the intensity of drug sentences, especially when they are taken in comparison to rapes, child molestations, and murders. Someone charged with manslaughter can be jailed for fifteen to twenty five years and someone in possession of crack cocaine can be in for forty…this just doesn’t seem logical to me. I am not advocating that drug users and dealers should not be punished, but more so am curious how we can weight that more heavily than someone who has taken a human life. Moreover, a child abuser serves an average of about 6 years, I think. Unfortunately, the victim of that crime serves a lifetime sentence. Many will relive the haunting images of that act every day for the rest of their lives. And this person only deserves to be punished for 6 years? I don’t think so…

When we first arrived at Parchman, the prisoner said something that really hit me hard. He said, “For us, every day is a life sentence, because we have no idea what tomorrow holds.” I can’t even fathom what it would feel like to live everyday with that burden.

Day 10 & 11: Cleveland, Mississippi

On the bus, we watched the Darryl Hunt video, which I have seen before but never fails to shake me every time. This case is probably one of the most horrific, modern examples of what racism can cause. Darryl had his entire life trashed, yet committed no wrongdoing whatsoever.

We also took our tour of the most rural cities we have been into on our trip. I definitely learned a lot about how important the Blues are to Mississippi in particular and how it still remains a major form of music in this area. Also, we went to Greenwood, where I fell in love with their Alluvian Hotel and the Viking Cooking Center. I definitely would like to return and spend a weekend there. It was amazing to learn how when Viking began, it revolutionized the entire city, particularly the downtown, and began more of the tourist, upper end part of the city. It was quite a weird feeling to go from the simplistic Hoover’s Grocery to the immaculate hotel and spa; it seemed as we couldn’t possibly be in the same vicinity of the country.

At night, we went to Po Monkey’s jook joint, by far one of my favorite experiences of the trip. It was amazing to experience how lively such a small place could be. I definitely found out I have a love for blues music. Po Monkey himself was astounding in all of his suit changes, and was extremely welcoming to all who came. It was a good time getting to go out and bond with the entire group. We definitely have all gotten extremely close on the trip, which is one thing I value the most and will take away from this experience.

Day 12: Parchman Penitentiary

I have been somewhat nervous though excited about this day. I made sure to not put on any makeup or do my hair because I wanted to appear as least feminine to the convicts we were about to see as possible. In reality, we were in very contained areas so this didn’t really matter. It was a good thing for me that the convicts we spoke with were not domestic abusers or rapists because due to my personal passions with these issues, I would have had an extremely hard time being in the same room with them, let alone listening to anything they had to say. I had no idea that much of our tour would actually be led by convicts, not to say that it was scary at all, I just was surprised at the levels of freedom they would give those who were close to leaving and had not committed violent crimes. It definitely made much more of an impact that we were able to talk candidly to convicts as to how their life was before and in prison. It is scary to see how normal some of these people’s lives were before they wound up getting involved with drugs to make extra money, and where they are now. It is so said to hear the people say all they want in life is to be altogether with their family for once, and be able to watch their children grow up. They will never get their children’s early years back, something that shapes both the prisones and their children’s lives forever.

There were quite a number of things that stunned me about Parchman that I feel are pretty characteristic of prisons in general. One was the obvious amount of corruption in numerous phases of the prison system, such as the lack of emotional wellness programs to get convicts recovered and in a state of consciousness that they can be readmitted into society and know how to be socially proper. Prison officials when asked note that the corruption exists, yet seemed to delay it off as the responsibility of another department to handle. In the end, the problem is too big that it simply is not handled for the most part. Also, the small metal animal cages that were considered the exercise area seem quite a joke to me. All you can really do in one of them is walk around in a four by four foot square. No person can stay fit and healthy on that minimal amount of exercise. Also, the horrible food and lack of any help for convicts during brawls within areas is appalling and inhumane in my mind. Above all, I am infuriated to meet with the convicts we did who are serving forty years, and even some who are serving life sentences for drug charges. Not to minimize the problem of the existence of drugs in society, but I don’t think anyone can argue that drugs are worse than child molesters, murders, and rapists in society. I was looking at a chart when we first walked in that showed how many years was typical for each offense. For rape, the charge was only five years. This is startling and irritating to say the least particularly being a woman, but also that there is just no comparison between drugs and rape. Rape tears apart the victim’s life, not just temporarily, but in most cases, for the rest of their life, yet we only give perpetrators five years in prison? Seriously what are we thinking?

Day 13: Clarksdale, Mississippi

I got up early this morning to finish working on my paper. I was mad again as I tried to walk to get breakfast at a place in our hotel on the other side of the casino that I got yelled at just trying to get something to eat. Like the last casino, I can’t even walk through the casino to go to the bathroom or the restaurant.

We took a short drive to the quaint little downtown of Clarksdale. It was so nice to have some free time to just look around and shop. We went in a bunch of stores, and I got a few souvenirs for some of my friends and family. We talked with a few people in the stores about how long they had lived in Clarksdale, what the rest of the town was like, and they told us a little about the hotel we are staying in for the night. The downtown was very quiet and the outside of stores and buildings appeared rundown, but inside all of the stores were very upscale. All of the stores were really neat, and their pride in blues music was evident in many of the stores. A few of us got to play with one of the store’s mascots which was a cute little pug dog. Next, we had an amazing lunch at Ground Zero Blues Club, and got to sign their wall. Now we are on the way to the much anticipated Shack Up Inn where we are staying tonight. I am very excited to see how authentic this place really is.

Shack Up Inn is awesome!! I absolutely love it! It is the coolest place I have ever stayed. I love cute little old timey places like this. It’s been nice to unwind and be able to walk from house to house to see everyone. I’m definitely glad we decided to trust that the place we were staying would be ok because it was worth it, without a doubt, in my mind.

Today I have learned alot about prison that I did not know. The first shocking news of the day for me was that 85 percent of prisoners are in prison for drug charges. That was interesting news to me when I first heard that. I guess that news was suprising to me becuase when I think about prison I think about murders, robberys and drugs may come to my mind time to time but I always thought that majority of people in prison were there for murder charges. I never imagined the day that I would visit a prison and all the reasons that I hear why I wouldn’t want to go to prison but today the heat of the prison solidified why I don’t want to go to prison. I learned that most of the older inmates are the least trouble makers and they want to do the rest of there time and get out. Just from going to prison just to visit I have made up my mind to never go there anymore.

I feel like an old, old woman after two days of riding the bus around the Mississippi Delta. I confess to being geographically challenged and ignorant of the Delta before this. I actually thought the Delta was the area around New Orleans, rather than the section of alluvial land further north between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers.

I also confess to being musically challenged because while I have heard of BB King, I did not know Charlie Patton or Robert Johnson before Monday’s endless bus ride. Growing up in Motown, I started to think of them as the Smokey Robinson and Little Stevie Wonder of the South. We were educated by several Blues scholars who were very excited about the “Blues Trail” of markers, commemorating their legendary heroes. I refused to go to Charlie Patton’s grave, however, because we were warned that the recent mowing may have scared up some snakes!

Speaking of snakes (skipping the Po Monkey’s scene altogether, under the bus motto of “what happens at Po Monkey’s stays at Po Monkey’s”) they were mentioned again today at Parchman Prison as one possible source of the mysterious “bologna” or “wolf booty” that the inmates are served for lunch. We were privileged to see the video monitoring room where over 300 cameras capture live images of all sections of the prison. We were all stunned to see a red liquid pooling out into the hall from a cell and sure enough, the monitors said it was blood from an inmate who had cut himself. They didn’t seem to be too concerned, as they said it was a common technique to get into the camp hospital.

Parchman turned out to be pretty intense, made all the more meaningful to me because of the recent experience of a close family member of mine who was recently released from prison. Many details in the speeches by the inmates resonated with me, especially the ones about family. Dr. Hattery says that when a person is imprisoned, his/her entire family is also imprisoned and that seems very true.

After a weekend in New Orleans and an evening at a Jook Joint, today’s destination was sobering. Parchman is one of the most notorious prisons in the United States and is the maximum security prison for the state of Mississippi. We had to stow and lock away all of our electronic equipment and money and the get patted down by a guard before we were allowed to tour the grounds. I knew the statistics about the size of Parchman which is a operating farm with 18,000 acres. But to actually see it was amazing. The property went on for as far as we could see. Its size and the fact it is all crop fields make it difficult for escape as inmates have few landmarks to help them guide their way out. There was an escape last month, but the escapee got lost and stopped to ask directions to Memphis. Since he was in a uniform and state car (both stolen during the escape), people knew something was fishy as any state official knows how to get to Memphis. So they caught up with him in short order…..

linked from: http://www.thebluehighway.com/parchman.jpg

It also turns out there was a killing at the prison last week, so we were fortunate to not have our tour canceled. It was a prisoner on prisoner killing using a handmade spear. Very chilling.

We heard talks from three different inmates who told us their individual stories. Two were in for selling drugs, one for murder (in relation to drugs). Evidently drug convictions account for a large percentage of the incarcerations. The sentences for dealing drugs are very severe in Mississippi, longer than for many violent crimes. It made me start to recall my long held belief that there is something to be said for the decriminalization of drugs. But that’s a discussion for another time.

The tour was very educational. Reading about prison conditions and watching dramatizations on TV/movies is much different from walking into one of the units for real. Talk about leaving your comfort zone…..Probably the thing that was most jarring to me was seeing the exercise cages that the maximum security prisoners use. They have access to these for 1 hour per day. The cages are 6′ x 9′ and have concrete floors and no shading. Today was supposed to run up to the 90’s and we saw many men in the cages around 2:30 pm. They looked miserable. How can a person exercise in that environment? I guess it struck me because I’m such an exercise addict and think it might help things if they could wear out the prisoners with some strenuous exercise!

The other highlight of the tour for me was the technology (surprise). We were able to see the surveillance system they have put in place to watch the maximum security unit. It was quite high tech, they have over 300 cameras in place and observe from a facility 3 miles away from the building. We were able to watch the live action on the screens. One disturbing scene was a guard mopping up a huge pool of blood on the floor outside a cell. We were told the prisoner sliced his arm and had been taken to the hospital. We were told this is often done in order to get out of the building to the hospital where the prisoner can get attention, rather than an attempt to really harm himself.

They say they do tours for many school aged groups from middle school on up. I hope it makes the kids think hard about how to live their lives, and not just give them nightmares.