I heard a rumor here at Taft Camp that I find disturbing. I don’t know whether there is truth behind it, and I won’t explore it further than writing about my frustrations concerning the rumor on this journal entry. What I heard concerns access to visiting and telephone. The rules of Taft prison camp limit each prisoner to 300 minutes of telephone time per month, and they also limit prisoners to a maximum of one visit per week. Rumor has it, however, that senior administrators at Taft Camp award extra telephone minutes and visiting time each month to at least one inmate.
I am all for incentives, and justice would persuade administrators at Taft Camp to authorize meaningful incentives for all prisoners. The incentive policy should be transparent. Individuals who abide by the established rules and make contributions to the prison community or the broader society beyond prison boundaries ought to earn the incentives. When administrators erect obstacles that block the majority of prisoners from nurturing family and community ties, but grant pet inmates more telephone and visiting privileges, they do not further the interest of transparent leadership. Instead, they breed anger and cynicism.
Numerous academic studies have shown that those prisoners who maintain strong family and community ties represent the most likely group to succeed upon release. As Senator Jim Webb said, our criminal justice system is a national disgrace. One reason that prison policies upset me is that despite such research, administrators erect these obstacles like telephone and visiting limitations. If the rumors that I have heard at Taft Camp are true, administrators make allowances for pet inmates to get around the limitations while the rest of us suffer. These are the reasons our criminal justice system is a national disgrace. If administrators are going to offer incentives, they should offer the incentives in a transparent way so that all prisoners can work toward earning them.
This morning I began my work at 2:37. I wrote through page 82 on the manuscript. At 6:00 I went outside to exercise. I ran 10 miles, then followed the run with 250 push ups. My running tally now stands at 1,500 miles over the past 170 consecutive days.
Sunday, 31 May 2009
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