• Want this released person believing in him/herself, knowing that it’s going to be hard, but also being prepared because they have a work and learning ethic and a sense of self worth so that we have a slight chance? Or do we
• Want someone who has used their prison sentence to fine-tune their criminal ways? Most of society doesn’t bother to think about this until someone reoffends and it hits close to home.

Now, in order to construct a true re-entry program, it has to start with the courts, and in conjunction with the men and women that court affects. The courts should know what they need to see in a prisoner in order to not have to see them again. And we offenders should know what we need to do in order to not see the court again. What I am advising is a small-scale thing for now, to see if it would work.

Let’s start by having someone from an HR department come and teach us (prisoners) how to fill out a job application, how to dress for an interview, and how to research the company that you’re applying to. Second, let’s instill some type of skill in people who are going to be released. The state and the DOC subcontracts millions of dollars a year—why not have, as a part of the bidding process, that contract include teaching a few pre-release inmates? This training could be in anything: electricity, plumbing, computer repair. These are all things that each facility at the ACI could make room for.

Most of us could succeed upon release—we just need a fighting chance. Yes, we should have thought of the consequences before we committed our crime, and yes, there are citizens who should be put before us in programs like this. Many people would say “why should the taxpayers help? They will just mess up again!”. This line of thinking is understandable and valid.

But still, something needs to be done. If nothing is done, people will keep going back to prison at high rates. We also need something in this place to help us cope with re-entry. We do appreciate the programs that are offered to us, we just need some more that we can relate to (like a program that deals with special situations, like how to resolve conflicts before they get aggressive). We need to learn to be productive and responsible citizens. We need to know that we can atone for our mistakes, and we need to see that there are success stories. These are the people that we need to meet as we are preparing for release, like people from the small business community, so that they can teach us how to reintegrate! These are the people we should be learning from.

Frequently, program instructors in prison are teaching curriculums from a text. But we also need hands-on learning—believe it or not, we have people who are eager to learn if the right environment is provided! Overall, we need a program where the concept is rehabilitation and not incarceration. These are two vastly different ideas, and the powers that be will have to make that choice.

No matter what people in Rhode Island are sentenced for, 90% of them have release dates, and they will be back in the community at some point. The state has the wherewithal to put together a such a pilot program if it chooses.

The DOC alone has an annual budget of $211,537,766. All this money to incarcerate, and so little to rehabilitate! Why not use what we have to help those that want to help themselves?

The right people put together with the same common goal would be able to construct a pilot release program that benefits all—we just need one person in power to make it work.

To truly reintegrate former inmates back into society, and also cut down on recidivism, let’s first put people in a situation to flourish and not fail. As a person that’s been incarcerated for the last two decades, I’ve seen what works and what will not.

Because most former prisoners want to be productive citizens and not products of their environment, despite what the media or policymakers will lead you to believe.

First, let’s try instilling a marketable skill in people who are about to leave prison. The DOC says it spends about $40,000 a year per inmate, and for women the number is more like $130,000. Let’s put some of that money to good use by hiring people that can teach and educate prisoners. It’s already hard trying to gain employment in this economy, and harder still if you’re a convict.

Second, we need to learn to re-bond with family. For most people, family is their only lifeline back into society. And reconnecting with them when we get out is not as easy as it seems. To pick up where you left off, even if you’re not going home to a program. Then sometimes you’re even sleeping on someone’s couch! And you have to adapt to their life situation.

Third, the rhythms of life on the outside are an adjustment—here in prison you’re told when to eat, when to go to your cell, or that no, you can’t use a phone or get a bar of soap from the cell next door. And all of a sudden you are back to being a son, mother, or a father. There’s no transition into this, and it can be scary. Because all of this—it’s new to you! It wasn’t like this before you went away. Even your kids might feel that something has changed. Some kids or spouses will have trouble coping with someone who has been gone coming home just like that.

You will also be coming from an all-alpha environment where you are constantly talked down to or where someone is always trying to get over on you. Respect is not given in prison; you have to fight for it. We need to learn and remember that society doesn’t function like that! We need to distinguish the differences between normalcy in jail and normalcy at home. Again, this is no easy feat.

So why not put something in place that can help with this?

Yes, all these things are up to the individual. However, the mission of the RIDOC is to contribute to public safety by maintaining a balanced correctional system of institutional and community programs that provide a range of control and rehabilitative options for criminals. This is their description, and yet the design, at least in maximum security, is to effectively deter you from school and productive programs, as well as family togetherness (because visits are so limited).

This isn’t a knock on the DOC—it’s a call to wake up and do what’s best for everyone! Let’s not talk about what needs to be done—let’s do it! See if we can simplify this! Education, job skills, and a place to live. We don’t want you to give it to us. We want you to help us help ourselves.

• Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
• Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
• Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
• Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
• Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
• Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
• Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
• Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
• Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
• Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
• You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
• How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
• Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
• PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
• Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
• ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
• Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
• Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
• Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
• Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
• Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown
• Taking a play out of black Mizzou football players playbook  – James Poston
• Why don’t female ACI inmates have a nice big rec yard like the men – Merissa Piccoli
• Literal segregation – Philip Randall
• Religion, violence and America – Derick Smith
• They say knowledge is power, but is it? – Devin Kyle-Garris
• Time to change what we consider newsworthy – David DuBois
• Prison Op-Ed Project gives inmates a voice – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse
  

But unlike other students I’ve visited in the past, this group was serving time at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institution’s medium-security facility in Cranston. They were earning credit toward a college degree from the Community College of Rhode Island, and participating in the Prison Op-Ed Project, one of several training, treatment, and educational programs designed to give inmates a better chance of staying out of trouble when they leave prison.

Completing this type of course has proven a smart investment of inmates’ time and of our correctional system’s resources.  Since Rhode Island in 2008 introduced a number of new policies and programs designed to better prepare inmates for life after release—things like college courses, drug treatment programs, and job training, combined with requirements for good behavior— incarceration rates in Rhode Island are down 17 percent. We’ve also seen a six percent drop in recidivism rates and a decrease in crime.

Those numbers are encouraging, and it’s not just Rhode Island that’s seen this kind of progress.  My partner on federal legislation to reduce recidivism is Senator John Cornyn, whose home state of Texas has engaged in similar efforts. We’ve cited Rhode Island, Texas, and other states’ successes to show how programs that help prisoners avoid returning to crime can reduce our federal prison population and incarceration costs.  Our proposal is now part of the comprehensive criminal sentencing reform bill that has passed out of the Judiciary Committee and awaits a vote in the Senate.

We should pass the sensible Senate sentencing reform bill and put Rhode Island’s successes to good use in our federal system.   We’ll realize the benefits not only in our federal system, and it may help move other states around the country.

One of the members of the class I visited noted how difficult it is for former inmates to access good substance abuse treatment after release.  Another pointed out how former inmates often go without health insurance in spite of serious health conditions.  Other Rhode Islanders returning to life after prison have told me how difficult it is to get a job without clothes to wear to an interview or don’t have internet access to search for openings online. These problems also contribute to the cycle that leads former inmates to re-offend and return to our over-burdened prisons.

There are smart, well-informed people in our corrections system, with first-hand perspective of the challenges of meaningful reform. I’m grateful to the Prison Op-Ed Project for giving them a voice as we work to fix our overcrowded, expensive prisons.

This post is published as part of the Prison Op/Ed Project, an occasional series authored by CCRI sociology students who are incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute. Read more here:

• Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
• Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
• Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
• Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
• Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
• Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
• Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
• Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
• Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
• Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
• You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
• How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
• Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
• PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
• Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
• ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
• Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
• Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
• Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
• Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
• Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown
• Taking a play out of black Mizzou football players playbook  – James Poston
• Why don’t female ACI inmates have a nice big rec yard like the men – Merissa Piccoli
• Literal segregation – Philip Randall
• Religion, violence and America – Derick Smith
• They say knowledge is power, but is it? – Devin Kyle-Garris
• Time to change what we consider newsworthy – David DuBois

Why is it that we are so interested and captivated with these types of stories? Why do peoples’ social interactions change while experiencing a tragedy?

In 1978 I was 10 and living in Woonsocket during the great blizzard. The February storm dumped 58 inches of snow at my house, crippling the area. Days later, stories evolved, including my own positive experiences.

Neighbors came out of their homes. People spoke, some for the first time, while living next to each other for years. Everybody was helping each other to dig out of the snow. The world had almost stopped revolving for a short time. People were almost taking on an altered personality.

But the media coverage was more interested in how many people died resulting from it, how much businesses lost, and the damages caused by the storm.

Many things get completely discarded as not “newsworthy.” What about all of the many friendships that were formed? What about the people who saved others by rescuing them, or taking food or water to people who were unable to get it?

Worldwide disasters mirror this story. In Hurricane Katrina, there were endless images of the major flooding in the New Orleans area. All about the levees that failed, the looting, and the fires set by rioting thugs in the area. But, alas, after the storm event was over, the many news crews moved on to the next “newsworthy” story that they could report on to keep their ratings up, and to keep talking head reporters speaking.

It really isn’t surprising to believe that the world is going to hell in a hand basket. Modern society is completely fascinated by death, disasters, and violence, and is becoming very desensitized to the way these things become part of daily life. Is there any correlation of anxiety and exponential use of pharmaceutical drugs for depression and anxiety? I believe this relationship is worth examining.

Not surprisingly, it took weeks for the press and news crews to return to New Orleans to cover the slow arrival of US FEMA there. This a primarily black, lower income population area. However, if the population were more of a white middle class, would the response have been much faster? I believe it would have.

In any type of natural or man-made disaster, there are many unsung, unidentified Clark Kents, Mother Teresas or Bruce Waynes that are never seen nor acknowledged (other than by God, who sees and knows our hearts and actions).

Among all the negativity and outward appearance of the world, there are still many good people left out there. It’s time for a change. Instead of giving people who do such heinous acts such as killing over 30 children in a CT school, or setting off bombs at the Boston Marathon for their 15 seconds of fame, let’s end it. The people should not be named, nor shown in pictures. Maybe there would be fewer incidents or this type of attack on innocent people. Modern society is to blame for this. Enough is enough—it’s time to stop the exposure, end the madness, and change the direction and process of reporting the news in all its forms.

Maybe, just maybe, people would be more helpful, more friendly, and more optimistic about people and our society as a whole. It is time to focus more on the victims than the perpetrators.

• Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
• Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
• Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
• Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
• Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
• Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
• Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
• Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
• Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
• Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
• You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
• How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
• Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
• PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
• Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
• ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
• Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
• Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
• Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
• Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
• Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown
• Taking a play out of black Mizzou football players playbook  – James Poston
• Why don’t female ACI inmates have a nice big rec yard like the men – Merissa Piccoli
• Literal segregation – Philip Randall
• Religion, violence and America – Derick Smith
• They say knowledge is power, but is it? – Devin Kyle-Garris

Our public education system used to be the envy of every nation, but we now lag behind twelve of the eighteen developed nations in fundamental literacy skills. Education doesn’t seem to be stressed enough. The environments of schools are deplorable, and many public ones are not even suitable for children to spend time there, let alone learn in them. There is no funding to fix the decay and disrepair in the schools. Ceilings are coming apart and bathrooms are filled with graffiti. Classrooms are filled to capacity and beyond, to the point that there are insufficient desks for children. We are not showing these kids that they are worth more than that.

Budget “crises” affect after school programs, which keep kids off the streets, and those crises also affect teachers by overloading them and not allowing them to give each kid enough attention. There is also inequality that plays a role. The privileged children in suburban neighborhoods don’t go through the same obstacles that children in urban neighborhoods go through to get an education. Money is not distributed equally to schools, and this contributes to these problems.

Schools need reforms and we need to find solutions to these problems.

The idea of getting a higher education is good, of course, but in reality it actually sucks. The tuition costs that not many students can afford, and the fact that some students are not eligible for aid discourages children—who are our future—from investing in their education. The years of debt and being broke doesn’t appeal to anyone in their right mind, so imagine the average kid: he or she would rather get a job.

There are plenty of success stories within our education system, but we need more. Everyone emphasizes how important education is, but they don’t emphasize how hard it is to get, to achieve. If legislators were to make college more affordable, or make financial aid more accessible, we might see that change. We should develop more trade schools that offer children different ideas of what they’d like to do career-wise. Invest in education, and take it seriously.

• This post is published as part of the Prison Op/Ed Project, an occasional series authored by CCRI sociology students who are incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute. Read more here:
• Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
• Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
• Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
• Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
• Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
• Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
• Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
• Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
• Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
• Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
• You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
• How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
• Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
• PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
• Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
• ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
• Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
• Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
• Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
• Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
• Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown
• Taking a play out of black Mizzou football players playbook  – James Poston
• Why don’t female ACI inmates have a nice big rec yard like the men – Merissa Piccoli
• Literal Segregation – Philip Randall
• Religion, violence and America – Derick Smith

Like most U.S. adults, I have violated the nation’s drug laws.

The year was 1971. A freshman at the University of Michigan’s Dearborn campus, I began smoking marijuana with two of my three roommates. As police did not arrest drug offenders on campus, I never worried about being jailed.

Not so for Clifford Runoalds, an African American who was arrested for failure to cooperate with prosecutors. They wanted him to testify against a defendant in the infamous Hearne, Texas “drug bust” of 2000. A rogue police task force arrested 28 residents on the word of only one informant, on drugs, who lied about his African-American neighbors.

Runoalds was innocent. The drug deals never happened. Still, he was jailed for a month before prosecutors released him. As Michelle Alexander explains in her extraordinary book, The New Jim Crow, Runoalds was technically free—but his life was decimated. Jail time resulted in the loss of his job, his car, his apartment and his furniture.

Moreover, Runoalds was grieving the death of his eighteen-month-old daughter. Handcuffed at her funeral, which was about to begin, police rejected his pleas to say goodbye to his daughter.

Runoalds is not alone. Systemic discrimination begins with traffic stops. National data indicates blacks and Latinos are three times more likely to be searched than whites. Pedestrian stop-and-frisk is far worse. The New York Police Department frisked 545,000 people in 2008: 85 percent were black; eight percent were white.

Prosecutors and judges amplify this discrimination. According to Human Rights Watch, at least fifteen states sentenced black drug offenders at 20 to 57 times the rate of white drug offenders. In addition, the U.S. Sentencing Commission documented that, from 2007 to 2011, blacks received sentences 19.5 percent longer than whites.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics projected that one in three black males born in 2001 would be sent to prison during their lifetimes; for Latinos, one in six; for whites, one in seventeen.

The War on Drugs is an excuse for mass incarceration of black and brown people. SWAT teams do not descend on college campuses. Police do not target the homes of white suburbanites. No, they target poor minority neighborhoods. But as Alexander’s extensive documentation indicates, “The notion that most illegal drug use and sales happens in the ghetto is pure fiction.”

Poor minorities are swept up into the criminal justice system in numbers whites will never face. Those arrested are often unable to pay bail. So they languish in a cage. Faced with many months or perhaps years in jail awaiting trial, even innocent people accept unjust plea bargains. Many serve long sentences on probation—just one misstep from prison.

In addition to 2.3 million incarcerated, more than 7 million people are currently on probation or parole, many for drug or other nonviolent offenses. The fact that minorities are vastly overrepresented in this system means, as Alexander emphasizes, they constitute a new caste, a permanent underclass.

Under Jim Crow, separate but “equal” treatment was legal. This systemic racism supposedly ended in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision. A new Jim Crow has arisen, however, with discriminatory effects even more powerful than the blatant racism of an earlier era.

Challenges to the system’s racism is now barred by court decisions. Alexander concludes, “The legal rules adopted by the Supreme Court guarantee that those who find themselves locked up and permanently locked out due to the drug war are overwhelmingly black and brown.”

Like many young white men, I smoked marijuana. Unlike massive numbers of young black men, few of us with white skin lost our freedom and our families. We did not lose our jobs, our apartments, our cars. Nor should we—but neither should drug users of color.

However, America has been imposing its will on weak, underdeveloped countries for a long time. Every country has the right to sovereignty, unless America decides we need some of their natural resources. Terrorists feel that they need to go to extreme measures to get the attention of the United States, which is in turn causing havoc in our communities, because they are unable to function well under extreme pressure and fear. Not to mention that our rights to privacy have been all but stripped from us.

America’s military is advanced enough to protect its citizens. So why are we policing the world, creating more and more enemies? We’re going backwards and endangering our society. Constant fear and numerous rights violations cannot be the “American Dream”. America has enough going on at home and that’s where our focus needs to be. If we looked inwards as much as we look outwards, we wouldn’t be at the top of everybody’s hit list.

Furthermore, with all the terrorists that are waging war on America, it’s imperative that we elect the right candidate. America is in a vulnerable state. We cannot keep raising the debt ceiling and turning a blind eye to terror, nor can we ignore the bleeding that the military budget is responsible for. Americans need to know that the primary votes are a priority, and through them, we control who controls the country.

• This post is published as part of the Prison Op/Ed Project, an occasional series authored by CCRI sociology students who are incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute. Read more here:
• Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
• Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
• Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
• Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
• Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
• Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
• Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
• Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
• Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
• Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
• You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
• How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
• Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
• PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
• Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
• ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
• Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
• Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
• Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
• Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
• Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown
• Taking a play out of black Mizzou football players playbook  – James Poston
• Why don’t female ACI inmates have a nice big rec yard like the men – Merissa Piccoli
• Literal Segregation – Philip Randall
  

Now, let’s fast-forward to 2015. America now has a more diverse culture and races, and theoretically people are more tolerant and understanding. Yet African-Americans are still being segregated, just in more subtle ways.

When browsing the library or bookstore, you will come across a section labeled “African-American”. Why are books by African-Americans put in their own section? What if I were to write a New York Times bestseller fiction; my book would be read and loved by millions of people. Because I am black, would my book go in the “regular” fiction section of the local bookstore?

The answer is probably not. Because I am African-American, the book would be classified as “African-American” fiction. Isn’t that a form of segregation, setting me aside in my own group, even in the bookstore? What makes my book different from any other book? Why are we considered “black” authors? How about just calling us “authors”? White authors aren’t considered “white authors”—they’re just “authors”.

I have never read a Stephen King book that I would consider “Caucasian” fiction. In almost everything we do, we are put into a class: “urban artist”, “black actor”, “black athlete”, “black history month”. These classifications are worthless when it comes to any other race but African Americans. It’s a peachy-clean way to separate one race of people from others. For me, segregation is apparent in habits like this.

• This post is published as part of the Prison Op/Ed Project, an occasional series authored by CCRI sociology students who are incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute. Read more here:
  • ‘Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
  • Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
  • Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
  • Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
  • Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
  • Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
  • Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
  • Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
  • Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
  • Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
  • You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
  • How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
  • Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
  • PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
  • Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
  • ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck

I am currently doing a six-year sentence in the women’s maximum/medium security facility. The facility is housing women with thirty-day sentences to life sentences. This building was not built to house inmates with long-term sentences. It was going to be a transition facility, which means there was not going to be anyone staying here for more than one year.

For whatever reason, something different happened. They took the women from a condemned prison (thank you) to this facility. Although the other prison was infested with roaches and mice, there was one thing to look forward to: “rec” (recreation) time. That building had a gym with weights and other workout equipment and a very large yard, that included an area with a basketball court and a large grassy space. We gave up a dirty old building for a newer one with no gym, and a yard that consists only of a basketball court. And that yard is all cement.

The yards at the men’s facilities (also medium and maximum) are much bigger than ours, with grass areas, weight areas, and a basketball court, as well as track and soccer fields. I do not know the exact measurements of the yard, but I don’t think the size of our yard is even a fraction of the size of theirs. They have the space to play a number of sports/activities. We can walk, play basketball with a ball that is basically flat, or volleyball until the ball goes over the fence and can’t be retrieved. What makes it okay for the men to have that yard but not the women? One may answer this question saying that there are more men than women incarcerated in Rhode Island, but I still don’t see that as a reason to deprive us women from having a better yard.

This may not matter to people who are not incarcerated, but it surely does matter to those of us who are. Rec time is very important; it’s a time to blow off steam, and it’s a way to stay healthy by exercising. It is also important for mental health. I know this issue may not ever matter or mean anything to people who do not have to be locked up in a facility on a daily basis and have only two hours a day to breathe fresh air.

I see signs that the overall problem of gender discrimination and the invisibility of women in the changing in the world. I think it only right that it change within this institution as well.

• This post is published as part of the Prison Op/Ed Project, an occasional series authored by CCRI sociology students who are incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute. Read more here:
  • ‘Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
  • Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
  • Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
  • Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
  • Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
  • Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
  • Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
  • Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
  • Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
  • Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
  • You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
  • How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
  • Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
  • PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
  • Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
  • ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
  • Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
  • Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
  • Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
  • Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
  • Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown
  • Taking a play out of black Mizzou football players playbook  – James Poston

With 7 percent of the student body at the University of Missouri being African American, some students took matters into their own hands and started to protest the lack of action from the administration. They called for the president and the chancellor of the university to step down. Some students even went to extreme measures by going on a hunger strike. All of this was to no avail: no one listened. Neither students’ protests nor their own health mattered.

The administration did not listen until the Missouri University football team refused to take the field during their next game if nothing changed. Within 24 hours, the president and Chancellor of the university put in their slips for resignation. That abrupt change caused people to ask why it was that angry protesters and hunger strikers got no attention at the university, but the football team did.

I have to assume that the answer is money. College football is a major source of income for such major universities. They generate billions of dollars each year. So when you hit them in the pockets, you get their attention. Many college football teams are under contracts with television networks and have endorsements from various companies.

During the civil rights movements, African Americans boycotted buses and all white-owned stores to get the attention of the people who were treating them unfairly. African Americans showed discipline and unity, and from that came a change. The University of Missouri football team and student body may be on to something. Minorities are big consumers in this country, and also those who are most oppressed and discriminated against. I could say African Americans should go back and take a page from the Civil Rights movement and hit the oppressor in the pocket. Let’s let history repeat itself.

• This post is published as part of the Prison Op/Ed Project, an occasional series authored by CCRI sociology students who are incarcerated at the Rhode Island Adult Correctional Institute. Read more here:
  • ‘Prison Op/Ed Project’ teaches civic engagement, writing – Meghan Kallman
  • Does racial injustice still exist? Look at our schools – Aaron Carpenter
  • Rhode Island charges felons absurdly high court costs – Christopher Nemitz
  • Public school students and inmates need more vocational training – Darnell Hie
  • Prison policies put probation and vocational training at odds – Norman Johnson
  • Corporate-modeled prison industrial complex doesn’t serve society – Adrian Rojas
  • Incarceration is the new slavery – James Poston
  • Justice isn’t blind with data-based sentencing – David Brown
  • Ending welfare entitlements opened the door to disability fraud – Dan Davidson
  • Post prison services would stem system’s revolving door – Michael Wheelock
  • You’re vote doesn’t matter as much as your money – David Brown
  • How schools emulate prisons, and prepare students for them – Richard Pimiental
  • Cars that are good for society – David DeGrasse
  • PTA involvement instead of prison mentality in schools – Mustapha Bojang
  • Prison is about re-socialization, not corrections – Christopher Marsich
  • ACI administrator praises Prison Op/Ed Project – Ralph Orleck
  • Alcohol, incarceration and what it means to matter – Laura Baumgardner
  • Was Myron Magnet a genius or just a Republican? – Danny Mercure
  • Ike was right: Military industrial complex corrupted economy – Christopher Marsich
  • Second Chance Act deserves second chance at full funding – Christopher Rocheleau and Adrian Rojas
  • Who poses a bigger threat to US: Ben Carson or Ahmed Mohamed? – David Brown