When you’re not a human: Strip Searches, Lockdowns and Limited Flushes?

What do these things have in common? Just some of the myriad examples of what can be done to people when their humanity is shelved. Some would argue that these methods aren't used explicitly for the debasement and dehumanization of millions of peoples' humanity, but even if there weren't plenty of other methods to accomplish the goal of stopping the flow of contraband than the robbing of dignity and humanity from everyone who passes through these places, no-one can argue that the degradation of so many things human isn't built right into these practices. I'd argue that persistence with these measures when so many better and less toxic ways to maintain security exist is akin to a surgeon who, despite technological and medical advances, still continues to saw off injured or infected limbs without anesthesia.

It's strange and disgusting the way a person can get used to just about anything. The deepest humiliation though comes after years of abuse when some memory or flash or realization snaps me to a painfully conscious awareness that I wasn't always so complacent.

Strip Searches

It was about 20 years ago the first time I was arrested, and a stranger made me strip in front of several others bend over and show them my ass. I remember details like you would if you were in a car accident, but I remember most the feelings of terror and shame. I can only liken it to the feelings I have heard from those who have survived some manners of sexual assault. I appreciate they are different but that's the closest thing I can relate it to. Yet, because my 'assault' was sanctioned by the state and in a group of several other strange men in a similar situation, is that supposed to justify it? Does it make it different or less humiliating? Less haunting? Does it make it okay?

I've now been subjected to this so many thousands (yes, thousands) of times that the realization of how bizarre it really is may never sink in again.

A Note on Efficacy:

I don't know how many people get caught this way, but most people who hide things up there hide them UP THERE. That is to say that spreading or squatting isn't going to make anything just fall out.

The purpose of all this you may know is to assure that the person isn't bringing in drugs or weapons or cell phones into the institution. But what a pat down can't do, can now be done my metal detectors and X-ray machines. To head off any argument about costs, the only reason I know this technology exists is because I've seen it in jails and prisons all over the country. Every BOP facility I have been to (5 thus far) has an X-ray machine that you stand on a platform, and it passes you through, allowing them to see everything inside and out. They also have a sit-down metal detector that can detect anything in you, anywhere.

The many reasons one can be stripped are visits(both going to and coming from), transfers (going and coming from), officer interview (like going to the principal's office), and plenty of other occasions besides. And yet all the technology they have at their disposal doesn't stop the near-constant strip shows we are forced to put on. If it’s not for our degradation, what IS it for?

Lockdowns

The lockdown is another favorite tactic of theirs to reinforce the idea that we are not humans, but animals: and not well treated ones at that. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums wouldn't accredit any prison or jail I’ve been to yet. Most people would agree that you'd NEVER treat an animal like this and especially not a primate, yet when it comes to humans somehow, they dodge those expectations.

The lockdown is generally a deviation from the way the prison usually runs. This is kind of out the window when it comes to the pandemic measures where they try to lockdown and punish covid out of the place, but just in general it is the case that this is not the day to day.

So, they lock us in the cells. Usually, two apiece. It can go for days, weeks, or months. Rarely will you know why and statistically it is this tiny percentage of possibilities that you were directly responsible for the lockdown, but you'll be punished, nonetheless. The prison will tell you (often while smiling and holding back laughter) that it's NOT a punishment, but for "security of the institution". But they turn off the TVs. You'll get a shower every 72 hours if you're lucky and with another human being within arm’s reach to witness you at your worst and most vulnerable and you get to see them at theirs.

NO store which means no hygiene products or over the counter medication (that the Dr's tell us to buy ourselves meaning they refuse to give them to us like Ibuprofen, allergy meds, heartburn meds, etc..) but also no food and if you go past a week or so, starvation becomes a genuine concern. It will teach you how to conserve energy. I lost 50lbs in 4 months(and I am not a fat man) in Clark County NV and towards the end, I was literally eating paper to fill my stomach. And they laughed at me.

Among the reasons I've been locked down for more than 24 hours: fight (usually between people I don't know or haven't met)-short of staff - wildfire - bad weather - riots in here - riots out there - protests on the news - riots in another prison (sometimes in a whole other state) - suicide of inmate - suicide of a staff member - covid - alcohol found - heart attack... I could go on, but you get the point. They lock us down for everything and anything. And even when we're locked down for something like a riot on the streets or disease, we are treated as if we are being punished. In reality, it’s a way for the staff to do what they took the job to do: hurt, punish, torment, starve. it’s their raison d'etre!

Lockdown is the proverbial hammer, and they see all their problems as nails. Nothing a little lockdown can’t fix.

The effects of these lockdowns on hundreds of thousands of people who had nothing to do with anything is to whittle away at any feeling of control or responsibility for one's actions. No matter what you do, you will be punished. That takes the wind out of your sails. After all, how many times do you think you could be punished for no known reasons before you accept that your actions have no effect on the world around you? Before you give up? It's a well-known phenomenon called "learned helplessness" in psychology circles. It's sad to watch it play out in reality.

Constant lockdowns also have the negative effect of instilling a lifestyle of "eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow you may be locked down”. It makes it hard to set any sort of schedule or moderate yourself when you know it can all be shut down at the drop of a hat. It turns into "why try". Want to do a class or program, but it gets shut down for weeks of lockdown. Want to start working out: but a lockdown derails the attempt and the accountability to workout partners. It really works its way in everywhere as a sort of conditioning that, to the untrained eye, may look like a lack of impulse control. Someone buys their 100$ bag of commissary and eats it all in a few days, hungry till next week’s store day. How will this translate when they're released?

As for feelings of responsibility, how hard would you try knowing that no matter how good you do. what programs you take, or how many people you help: you will be punished. The helplessness that comes is shown to lead to depression and anxiety and this is among people already experiencing an abnormally high rate of mental disorders, some studies showing as high as 60%.

Among the worst effects of these lockdowns is to put further strain on our relationships with people out there. Even if someone can intellectually accept that it’s not personal (kids can't be expected to understand and ALWAYS take it personal), after years its nothing but a string of let downs and broken appointments and missing even the call home for someone's birthday or Christmas. I missed a call home 2 Christmases ago because of a covid lockdown. Being punished for a pandemic is part of our new normal.

If we're lucky, we've got stamps to be able to send snail mail out and, at least, inform our family of why we're not able to call or email, but that takes a week at least. if family calls the prison, they're not told anything other than the inmate they are asking after is in fact THERE. That is all. Not a health status or why they're not able to call. It's another example of punishing our families with us.

Limited Flushes?

Not the cruelest but among the most unusual methods these people have devised to dehumanize us is installing limited flushes on the toilets. There is something terrifically disgusting about the person who came up with that little gem, locking 2 or more people into a bathroom, and as if that’s not bad enough, limiting the flushes to 2 every 30 minutes. Some places have it worse than that. I'm pretty sure your imagination can do about as well as my explanation about how bad this can be. But for an added detail, the prison feeds us the cheapest food possible: this means several times daily servings of beans. So... you're welcome for that.

The reasons they give(may be guesses on their part) are for water conservation which I don't buy. It would be admirable, but if they were looking for conservation and helping the environment, they'd be better off starting at the literal mountains of trash produced just by our kitchens here: 100 people on this yard alone, 3 meals a day on non-bio-degradable Styrofoam trays, the kind McDonalds did away with in the 90s.

As an aside, I've been trying to get a recycling program started for almost a year in here now chasing after various staff members who are reluctantly accepting the buck for a moment then passing it as if it were a hot potato to someone, anyone else. But in the whole year, it's got all the way around form the warden where I started back to... you guessed it, the warden! I'm told vaguely that there may be a recycling program somewhere offsite where they sort through the mountains of trash, but I am dubious. No-one else among the several staff members I talked to seemed to know about this. Regardless, any way we look at it, I don't believe the amount of water conserved is worth the humiliation of hundreds of thousands of people.

Like so many of the methods of prison, humanity is set aside for things like "security" for the greater convenience of staff. I admit that it would be much harder to treat these people like PEOPLE and it would also make it impossible to employ a large number of the sadists that tend to gravitate towards these jobs. But imagine if they spent the hundreds of millions of dollars per year on rehabilitation and reintegration into society. What if they spent the money to make the offender realize how society was harmed, to help them become a part of it instead of the constant reminder that we are nothing but the enemies of.

Another reminder, one I can’t stress enough: most of us, over 99% that are incarcerated right now, will be out. Many today. Many more tomorrow... over 90% within 5 years, I think the statistic says. treatments like these can only reinforce the idea that we are all hated, less than human, not deserving of basic respect or privacy or most of the things that separate us from animals. Does this sound like the people you want released onto your communities? How can we change this? Make people aware? Do people know how we are treated? I'm one voice. I'm doing this from behind bars. What could you do?