Last Thursday I participated in an inmate-advisory meeting that included several other prisoners, Associate Warden Wofford, and Case Manager Oliver. This new group is called the Quality of Life Group, and we’ll meet together once every month. Our first meeting went well; both AW Wofford and Ms. Oliver responded to suggestions with interest.
The group participants provide administrators with ideas that might lessen the pains of confinement. I’m encouraged that staff members even want to listen to concerns from the prisoner population. Ordinarily, my experience has been that administrators manage from a more totalitarian perspective—with orders, demands, and inflexible rules. Yet AW Wofford shows more leadership, and a sincere interest in easing some of the stress that comes with imprisonment. She cannot do anything to lessen the amount of time we serve, but it’s clear that she wants our time to pass as productively as possible at Taft Camp.
I haven’t been confined in a prison where administrators have shown such concern since the early 1990s. The trend has been for prisons to become more punitive and repressive. For example, in some prisons rules have prohibited prisoners from using typewriters for correspondence; they may use them to prepare court documents, but nothing else. Those are the types of petty rules I’ve become used to living with.
I brought many ideas for AW Wofford to consider. One included visiting room policies. Visiting with family, to me, represents an essential link to society. Through visiting, people in prison can nurture relationships that will assist them through confinement and beyond. Further, children need as much connection with incarcerated parents as possible. Point restrictions limit the amount of time prisoners may spend with family. AW Wofford is considering a few ideas to provide more time for prisoners to visit with family. One idea is to open visiting on federal holidays without charging against point allotments; another idea is to expand the point allotment itself, or eliminate it. We’ll see what happens. She will also explore the possibility of installing a coffee machine in the visiting room.
Another suggestion I brought up would be to allow prisoners an opportunity to record video presentations that they could send to family. Children, wives, parents, and extended family members who live too far away for visits may appreciate receiving a video recording from their loved one. I’d like to be able to record a video for people who are important to me.
AW Wofford is considering other suggestions as well, including more access to vending machines and changes to the television system. I don’t know whether the suggestions from our group will result in real change, but I am optimistic and I appreciated the Associate Warden’s interest.
Ran miles / 5,245 miles in 589 days
700 pushups / 79,700 pushups in 2010
Saturday, 24 July 2010
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