A Broken System

The covid pandemic started around March 2020. 2 years ago. That was the first time I got Covid and we've pretty much been locked down since then. That’s been two years of no classes like Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous, no programs for learning a trade, no visits.... You may well ask what good these programs do. They don't just lower recidivism, they give inmates something positive to do with their time rather than the cards, TV, and drugs offered up and tacitly accepted by the prison staff. If you wonder about the rising crime rate and how it may be affected by people being warehoused for years... well, you're not alone. It's not THE reason, but it is A reason. You also have to wonder about the mental stress it places on people in here to be locked down in an 8x12 cell for 2 years. I’m sure future studies will reveals it’s not ideal!

After 2 years of failure on the prison staff to spontaneously develop a medical professional's education, the death rate for the incarcerated went up 46% in 2020 (according to Wendy Sawyer). The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) itself saw more than a 50% increase in deaths and this is AFTER congress told them to release more people. They actually released less… the population went down, but that was due to from the lower arrests (and maybe some covid deaths), not from any cooperation on the part of BOP.

Personally, I've had covid 3 times in 2 years and this is despite the best efforts (evidently) of thousands of BOP employees. I've seen inmates AND staff die. Does anyone think it's strange that cramming hundreds of people in a small building where personal space is rarely outside of arms reach leads to ridiculous outbreaks? That people come in and out daily and continue the pat-downs and feel-ups that obviously are spreading it to people who are more quarantined than anyone you've ever known?! Id like to think society in general doesn't know about this, but I've heard it voiced by the staff here (caring people as they are) that if you didn't want to die you shouldn't have come to prison. We'll break that down later maybe. Task at hand... and also… we didn’t know we need to endure a pandemic that makes us the perfect petri-dish for repeated reinfection

Could we come up with a better way to spread covid?! Maybe if we made a large group live in cells and share the same stuff like phones, spoons, plates, showers and... oh wait, CHECK! We did that.

At what point do you accept failure? If a doctor tells you hitting your head against a wall is the cure for a headache, how many times do you do it? How many years? It's been over 2 years now and no end in sight. The world is opening up, yet we lock down more. It’s clear they can do nothing to stop the spread. The rest of the world is accepting this, why not the BOP?

Another perspective could be that it's only a failure if we’re expecting them to do what they say they do - that is protect us, help us, and rehabilitate us.. They've been failing at that for DECADES! As an endeavor to allow sadists free-reign to exercise their weird pseudo-sexual dominance over people who can't defend themselves, it's been a rousing success! AND yes, I'm aware how bitter that sounds. I would ask you to give a little credence to the 14yr tenured convict writing this. I'll refrain from too much appeal to authority, but its one of those things you pick up over time in here.

Is it me, or does this bring up the broader question of failure within the system at every level? If prison made us better, well the obvious retort is that... we'd be better. Why then, are people afraid when they hear someone is an ex-con? If we were actually rehabilitated, why do an alarming rate of return clients come back through these gates? Repeatedly!? If we were kept safe, why are we dying in record numbers, getting out with scars and PTSD, technologically retarded, and fundamentally warped by the continuous torture inflicted be some of the sickest people on Earth who choose to work here?

Putting those who take pleasure in our misery on an individual level aside, there is one thing that covid clearly magnified within the BOP. That the system is well and truly broken. This is not new information, but it has helped highlight the issue. At what stage do people take a step back and recognize that what they are doing is not working. It doesn't seem to have ever worked. Einstein evidently said that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.” At what stage to those with the power to implement effective change admit this is insanity and actually do something about it?