To be sure, our penal system has the best wardens and guards available, but how they continue on in their law enforcement career fields only God knows. That’s because the warden and guards have to be on constant, continuous alert. Every word spoken, every gesture, every movement made by one and all prison officials is keenly noted and mentally jotted down for future reference. Any weakness, any fear, any irregularity can and is used against prison guards—often times to their detriment, and even worse, their demise.
We aren’t paying attention to any of this—spending our time watching American Idol, So You Think You Can Dance, Entertainment Tonight, or other mindless productions—and we are paying dearly for our inattentiveness.
You see, along with Murder, Inc., taking place in our prisons and orders being carried out for wasting human beings outside from within, the drug trade is also regulated from within those same prisons.
We lock up the criminals and they are allowed all the time in the world to conduct their underworld activities and do so at taxpayers’ expense. Free meals, free housing, and something called “prisoner rights.”
I don’t know about you, but I thought when we committed a crime and were sent to prison, we had no rights. No television, no weight rooms, no in-prison tattooing to designate coded groups, no nothing. At the same time, I figured when a person goes to prison, he/she has to pay society back for the crime committed. I thought that meant work? You know, manual labor, cleaning, jobs no one else is paid to do. But, I guess I was wrong (again).
Seems to me that allowing prisoners to segregate is a first fault; this should never, under any circumstance be allowed. Permitting them communication with the outside world is a second fault. Providing them with any recreation is a third fault.
Hard-***ed? I don’t believe so, especially when we have waterways that are polluted and need to be cleaned; roadways that can be repaired, environmental cleanup of toxic materials, land reclamation projects, clean-up/fix-up of ghettos … (You may add your own projects.) And please, please don’t tell me that there are agencies that can do the latter; we may have agencies, but they aren’t doing anything but sending us reports on how bad everything is. We’re already paying for lifers in prison—make them earn their keep and pay back taxpayers for the crime and time.
Ah yes, America. We love it, but the question is, Will we keep it?
By Wayne Dominowski
