It is a really nice day today, probably in the mid-eighties, Fahrenheit. At rec one of the guards configures some doors usually locked shut so he can sit on a chair in front of the open door to allow himself to sit outside and watch the inmates in the yard while cooled by the breeze of air conditioning from the building. It is wasteful, sure. Sort of shameful too, that they would rather throw it away carelessly than to utilize it for inmates whose cells get so wet it destroys books. Most importantly it is an example of how a poorly planned institution becomes an inefficient burden to taxpayers. I don't really understand why guards are out there anyway. They don't get in the middle if fights break out. Guards should have much less interaction with inmates in my opinion. They should have riot dispersing water canons they can shoot from air conditioned towers strategically positioned around the yard. The canons should also have an option for pepper spray if they need. Then they could immediately respond to any physical altercation with suppressive blasts of water. Plus, you could pay a kid $20 per hour instead of $38 per hour and control more inmates with fewer staff. And I promise you any inmate would rather towel off than to have his jaw wired shut or recover from having his face stabbed up because the guards were busy assembling into a group before approaching a violent inmate. Work smarter and safer; squirt squirt.
My other observation is that guards shouldn't be randomly pat searching inmates so much. It is a process abused by guards for their own gratifications and they rarely find the contraband anyway. What I believe a well designed institution should do is to limit the property that is allowed in the inmates cells even more than they already do so they can quickly search through their belongings and relocate inmates to different cells. Most contraband is hidden within an inmates property so the less property they clutter their cells allow for fewer hiding places. They should let inmates release property to visitors, which they do not, and offer more entertainment and education options through the internet. Actually, I imagine a large video display and camera that would allow for virtual doctor visits, educational programs, video visits, or whatever else. Something built into the wall behind thick security glass where an inmate could option a small speaker or headphones/earbuds. They could pay staff half their current wages to enforce the decency standards imposed on any other interaction with staff or visitor, and then the interactions would have an independent account of what transpired. No more framing guys for solicitation with fake butter stories? It could be safer for the inmates. It could drastically reduce inmate movement to HSU and their housing unit, allow for inmates to be seen quicker, and limit the potential exposure of inmates hostile to each other, or even hostile to staff. Triple the construction cost per cell to halve the operational expense, and reduce potential lawsuits by accepting more responsibility for the "persons in our care." We can demand more out of our cell phones and should demand more out of our cell homes too. The idiocy of a penal system and how it cultivates criminal lives. Inmates should be provided every opportunity to satisfy restitution, rehabilitate and rehabituate into lawfully productive group members, and be able to do so safely. Otherwise it isn't really a department of corrections. It's just The Department of Incorrections. Two, or more, wrongs do not make anything right. Even the most heinous criminals seem to disconnect from the crimes that caused their imprisonment and the wrongs perpetrated by the system fail to have relevance. An inmate being molested by a guard because he got caught brewing hooch doesn't think about, or talk about, how he is here because his first drunk driving ticket was the result of an accident where he crossed the center line and caused the death of two people. Or if he gets caught with porn? At what point is the government just assuring future problems? When people become so incarcerated that decarceration is not possible? We should be doing "this" better. Where do we start? Think water guns. Squirt squirt!
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aboutThese are the journal entries of Zachariah Anderson. All entries are originally handwritten by Zach and then transcribed on his behalf. Please note that occasional misspellings and grammar errors may be fixed during transcription for the sake of making the entries easier to read and sensitive information may be redacted. Archives
September 2024
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