A Faustian Shower

“The infliction of cruelty with a good conscience is a delight to moralists.  That’s why they invented hell.” – Bertrand Russel

 

State prisons differ vastly from region to region in the U.S.; these human storage facilities go from semi-humane to bloody hell.  A general rule of thumb is the farther south you go, the more cruel the cage is.  I’ve often wondered why that is and the only reason I can figure is that the resentment about losing the civil war, free slave labor and then Jim Crow, is somehow passed down to younger generations along the Bible-belt.  Our guards wear Confederate gray, and many of them have rebel flag stickers and rifle-racks on the back window of their pickup trucks.  If you’ve ever driven past a Texas penitentiary and witnessed the countless black prisoners picking cotton and other back breaking labor with a gun-toting bossman on a horse yelling at them to work harder under the blistering sun, you might even agree with my theory.  (Of course nowadays you have a sprinkling of a few white and brown slaves, but in this region, prisoners are less human than historical slaves ever were.)  This outdated southern justice system is far more brutal than the rest of America and with the way they fight any kind of reform tooth and nail, it may stay that way for a long time.

Archive Classic - Commissary Day

About “Commissary Day”

     When I wrote the following essay, describing in detail one of the more unfortunate rituals of prison, I received some rather strong reactions from readers. Most agreed that it was emotionally hard to read, and some of the more sensitive couldn’t manage to read it at all. I believe my writing was at fault…too much of my own misery leaked through the words. So, I’m rewriting the story, trying to make it more palatable. 

     I ask readers to understand that prison by its very nature breeds unpleasant experiences, and though I’ll attempt to remove some of my own raw emotion from the narrative, that doesn’t mean I can make it any easier to read.

     The issue of race was also a problem for some readers. Race isn’t something I feel qualified or comfortable addressing, but the penitentiary is socially primitive. And however ridiculous, race defines inmates far more than people in the outside world. Let me say that I find racism in any form highly distasteful and don’t condone it. Also note that racism and racial division are not necessarily the same thing. Bi-racial friendships here, while not encouraged, are not uncommon and usually without consequence. Racial division is more a result of circumstance than actual hate. When you create an all-male environment full of deprivation, volatility and uncertainty, it seems inevitable that a tribal culture will result.

Commissary Day 

 

“Principles have no real force except when one is well fed” — Mark Twain 

 

It’s 4:30 in the morning, and my head must weigh 50 pounds as I part it from the “fire-proof” pillow. It’s not just fatigue. Actual torture probably doesn’t break a person as fast as the apprehension of it. Blindfold a victim, strike him at random, and the blows won’t hurt nearly as much as the pauses. I dread this coming day, and my yearning for return to bed weighs me down; every movement willed.