Prison Yard Time - Original Writing

Without any diversion from their actuality, the inmates start to feel as though their existence is pointless. Hopkins says, “It strikes me that for most of them, prison has become a life of waiting: waiting in line to eat, for a phone call, the mail, or a visit. Or just waiting for tomorrow-for parole and freedom. For the older ones, with no hope of

I sat in a small, dirty and crowded holding cell in Fort Bend County jail. Sitting here waiting to get processed and see the nurse, Mane! These men in this holding cell were all fucking trifling. There were cells for suicidal inmates, crazy inmates, murderers and those going through drug withdrawal. The smell of musty underarms, alcohol and feet made it unbearable to breath. It was time for me to live with the consequences of the choices I had made. The newest consequence was the foreboding environment of a small, overcrowded county jail.

The United States is home of the brave, the free, and the land of opportunity. People from countries all around the world come to the United States to better themselves, or to give their children a chance at a better life. Countries of all races and skin colors have come since the land of the Americas was “discovered,” white, black, brown, and yellow. However, there is a key color missing; the color that has been her longer than any other, red. How is it that the people who have lived off the land of America for centuries before the Europeans arrived are the one race that is given the least amount of respect? After the British defeat

At night, inmates are found either standing or sleeping on any area that is sheltered enough to give them a night’s sleep. But there is noticeably a large population in a confined small space. To add, the scarcity of food is a problem which juveniles experience. During meal times, the facility follows a 'first come first serve' rule while not taking into consideration whether all the inmates have been served with food.

Prisoners began by taking control of south-side Dormitory E-2; within minutes the prisoners had taken four more officers in the dorm hostage, a fleeing officer left keys behind which gave the inmates complete access to the main control center, inmate cells, doors and weapons. By midafternoon violent offenders from solitary confinement had been released and the violence had gotten out of control. The prisoners had a particular area they could not access, the protective custody area, this area held the mentally ill and vulnerable inmates it included those inmates convicted of sex crimes and yes, those labeled snitches. Armed with blowtorches left by a construction crew, the inmates cut through the bars of the cells and in the early morning of February 3 began so did the brutal slaughter several inmates.

Lets take a look at the schedule of an correctional. When an officer first reports to work at 7am officers come in and read their logbook to see what there jobs are going to be. At 7:30am the officers open up prison doors for ten minutes so that he

Leonard Peltier is a Native American man currently imprisoned for crimes he did not commit. Peltier is currently serving time in Leavenworth, Kansas, and it is likely that he will live the rest of his life in prison. Examining Peltier’s experiences through several different community systems frameworks will push human service professionals to help not only individuals but whole communities as well. In particular, the ecological systems theory, historical trauma, and the theory of social capital are helpful in making sense of Peltier’s experiences, and seeing them not as random events but as the culmination of years of mistreatment, oppression, and marginalization.

Most of his time at Sing Sing was consumed being in close contact with the inmates, in dining halls and housing galleries, doing strip searches, searching cells, writing disciplinary infraction reports, and confiscating inmate contraband. In addition, because they live in an enforced state of near powerlessness, answering to inmates who required support with a seemingly endless range of personal complications occupied much of Conover’s time. Conover’s account of the correctional officer’s role is consistent with those opinions offered by others who have firsthand experience of prison life. Virtually all serious, firsthand interpretations of correctional work define a gap between the training and the realism of the job, official policies and procedures that require routine avoidance, poor associations between line officers and administrators, and the undermining power of stress on professional conduct and personal life.

The author of Descent into Madness discusses how systems of criminal justice that engage in high levels of disorganization become nothing short of a breeding ground for discontentment among prison inmates. The other main point is that prison staff psychologically are hungry for power. This manifests in the myriad of ways that they treat the inmates in an effort to feel powerful through by retribution through their

Most of us won’t really live for a minute behind the walls in order to be empathetic with the prisoners and that’s probably the reason we normally don’t feel a thing even if we read the inner life of the American prison (Gopnik, 2012). Adam Gopnik (2012) describes the life as “ not that of lock and key but that of the lock and clock.” Time frozen behind the walls and electronic securities with panic, paranoia and

In Block v. Rutherford, 468 U. S. 576 (1984), it was concluded that banning contact visits would be beneficial since visitors can conceal prohibited items and they can easily be transferred to the inmates through close contact and it would be too difficult to tell which inmates have violent tendencies as the inmate population is constantly changing. A new inmate can pose numerous risks to the staff and existing detainee population. Therefore, it is important that correctional officers conduct a thorough search as part of their standard procedure for all new inmates. Incoming inmates need to be searched in order to detect any concealed contraband that may disrupt the safety and operation of a jail as well as treating individuals who may have wounds or visual infections.

The new prisoner is then admitted into their “pod”. Rather than keep ALL the inmates together in one large group, they are broken down into smaller groups. Each group lives in their own pod. Each pod had a central living space and outside fresh air lounge. The individual cells surround the living area and there are three additional floors that overlook the central living space that you reach by inside stairs. Each level contains approximately 10 individual cells. Some information was not available to us (the public) as it is confidential. Information such as how many Officers work in a pod per shift. The inmates are served their meals in the central living space and it the Correctional Officers job to count everything they take. Items such as jam containers, plastic knives and forks are made into weapons by the ingenious inmates. After they are given their meals and have had time to go to the gym, they are then put back into their cell for the night.

Prisoners are locked behinds cells confined in a small space without windows for 22 to 23 hours per day. Cells are illuminated by artificial light with no means for prisoners to control the brightness. These lights remain on all day so inmates have difficulty-distinguishing day from night (Arrigo and Bullock, 2008). At times the prisoner may be confined the whole day if they decide to misbehave. Interaction with other human beings is strictly prohibited. The only contact prisoners have is through a closed-circuit television to talk to their visitors or when correctional officers placed handcuffs and other restraints (Pizarro and Narag, 2008). From the extreme isolation, such inmates tend to fear

describes how the superintendent checks that the prisoner is dead and everyone goes back to the prison,

Prisons have many policies set in place to help aid inmates’ with adjusting to prison life. No matter what policies are set in place to help aid inmates they will always have a hard time especially for first timers. According to Frank Schmalleger and John Ortiz Smykla (2009) new inmates face major problems because of the loss of liberty, lack of material possessions, the depravation of materials and services, the lack of heterosexual relationships, and feeling unsecured. I think that inmates can be helped with the adjustment process by initiating and enforcing a program to deal with such issues. I think I would eliminate policies that are designed to make prison life unpleasant and concentrate more on policies that help inmates progress in their educational and rehabilitation programs. One policy that is very important to inmates is to feel safe in their prison environment. As a result there have been many debates on the rights of the inmates. I think the most important policy I would enforce is educational programs that will