Voices From Prison

For the last 15 years, the October issue of Mass Dissent has been devoted to prisoners and their life behind bars. The U.S. is now infamously the number one leader for imprisonment of its population – 715 per 100,000 people (compared to Venezuela’s 76 per 100,000) – statistics that are astonishing and troubling. Even more problematic is the fact that non-Hispanic Blacks (13% of the U.S. population) account for over 40% of the imprisoned, while Whites account for 33% of the prison population, even though they make up 74% of the total population.

Since the 1980s, the U.S. has shifted its view on crime – prevention and rehabilitation have been replaced by a punitive approach, and drug-related activities began to be treated as very serious violations. These changes have contributed to an unprecedented threefold increase in incarceration rates, but have not been followed by any increase in prevention and rehabilitation services. On the contrary, while more people are put behind bars, basic prison services are deteriorating or are being eliminated altogether.

In this issue, we present a few examples of the depravation, dehu- manization, and mistreatment prisoners experience. In addition to poems by Arnie King, Rube, and Omar Abdullah, we reprint very moving drawings by Kneyl Burnette and James Riva. In September, the NLG and Prisoner Legal Services filed a lawsuit against the Essex County Sheriff who, as Meredith Carpenter explains, established mandatory fees for medical services in the county prison. Shawn Gomes, in his piece, argues that although almost everyone who enters prison walls needs psychological support, the system does not provide what’s needed. Joe Labriola tells us that even basic necessities such as good quality water are not available to prisoners. Marc Brown writes about how prison guards and some inmates abuse their powers and bully the inmates to control them. We end with Timothy Muise who wonders why most prisoners accept their fate and, rather than objecting to inhumane conditions, adjust to prison life and forget that they are behind bars.

We would like to thank all prisoners who submitted their work for this issue. Because of space limitations, only a fraction of submissions could be printed.

- Editors -