Hard-knock life

Imagine this scenario: Due to unfortunate circumstances, you find yourself locked in a bare room. Everyday activities are monitored with the expressed intent of breaking you down. Your life becomes a routine, played out at the behest of those unconcerned with your well-being. You eventually lose contact with your family and friends. Such a scenario isn’t improbable – 2.2 million Americans currently lead a life similar to this in prisons around the country. \nWhile it is in vogue to bemoan broken systems like social security, health care, education or immigration, few pay heed to the plight of incarcerated individuals. \nThis unwillingness to empathize with prisoners, while understandable, has led to a criminal justice system that is convoluted and riddled with contradiction. \nFor instance, Monroe County officials recently announced plans to create a “justice campus” which includes new jail and juvenile facilities. This piece of news came at the heels of a Herald-Times report that detailed the increased incidence of violent crime in the county since last year.\nThis move by county officials mirrors the conservative solution to more crime – more prisons and more guns. These superficial responses to criminal behavior do not acknowledge the real difficulties and inequities that necessitate crime. \nSuch attempts to dehumanize prisoners follow a well-worn pattern that has been used to cast out others, such as undocumented immigrants and gay men and women. Portraying these people as “outsiders” helps us to dismiss them, making sure that their voices are silenced. \nCurrently, few programs exist that consider prisoners as individuals with full productive lives. Bloomington is home to one such endeavor, the Pages to Prisoners Project. Operating within the Boxcar Books and Community Center, the project provides requested reading material to incarcerated individuals. According to Anita Mazkoori, the program’s Advocate for Community Engagement, the most popular book request by prisoners is a standard English dictionary, which indicates how difficult it is for prisoners to access any educational medium while incarcerated.\nMazkoori adds that the project not only stimulates critical thinking behind bars but also ensures that recidivism rates are lowered, since prisoners with an educational background are much less likely to end up re-incarcerated. \nUnfortunately, programs like the Pages to Prisoners Project are rare. But they are a necessary first step in rethinking the archaic model of a prison. They emphasize the need for the criminal justice system to move away from punitive measures and replace them with rehabilitation. The ideal system would value the dignity of human beings and support them in gaining a fresh start through the expansion of work-release programs and transitional housing.\nIn earlier days, it was common to torture criminals in public places as punishment for their crimes. Prisons were created as a response to these heinous actions, a place where a more humane form of penalty could be meted out. \nBut this role has remained largely unrealized. It seems that in the process of dehumanizing prisoners, it is we who have lost our humanity.