2-10-2016

Prison Hate Being Fueled By Staff: Do They Even Realize It?

I don't hear it with my own two ears very often, but when I do it's because some inmate wants to make a statement to those around him in ear shot. It's when a hate filled man, specifically an inmate, goads a staff member to agree with him publicly about hating a whole group of people.
This is unfortunate because what has just taken place is now that particular staff member is now "aligned" with that person's prison gang mentality. This is a real problem because now if something happens and someone needs help and the only option is to go to said staff member...how can they be trusted? The reality is now they can't, they've been compromised.
Why should the public care? Well, because the people that DOC employees are paid to do a job. Their union ensures that DOC staff is paid accordingly to 1) keep us in prison and 2) do so by keeping us safe. If a prison gang or people who have prison gang mentalities are getting certain staff members to agree with their mentality then what is happening is now their view point is validated by someone who is "responsible". That is a real problem folks because now when that individual gets out, guess what mindset he's getting out with? Yup, the one that was validated. 
This idea that it's ok to hate people based on charges or sexuality or race is flawed. However, it's the "norm" in prison and has come to be acceptable behavior. One that is endorsed by staff who are afraid to take stands. If the idea of a corrective state is to correct deviant behavior, then I am sorry to have to be the one to tell you that hatred of a particular grouping of people is deviancy at it's finest. 
Yesterday an inmate walks up to a guard and starts complaining about having to sit with "weirdos" at chow line: "those f*****g weirdos will sit a table all by themselves instead of sitting together and then when us solid dudes come in we have to sit with them or tray up and miss our meal, that's not right is it c/o?" then the c/o promptly agreed with him as the inmate looked around at the hundred or so people that surrounded him listening and he nodded triumphantly. We all knew right then and there what had just taken place. It was subtle at first but made a giant statement. That c/o was now aligned with that guys views and now he's validated.
What that guy fails to realize is that they don't want to sit with him because he's negative and will go nowhere in life. He has no goals and no aspirations to do anything but complain about the world around him. He sits on his duff all day and lifts weights thinking that he is better then those people of those people and that their the reason he has nothing, when in reality it's because he's lazy and is unwilling to be accountable to himself.
So when he gets out that same mentality is being forced on the public once again. What that staff member should have done is tell him to get over himself and publicly disagree with him. Then that behavior would have been challenged and perhaps even changed a little. Yes I know that it's true that evil cannot be eradicated from the earth yet, but it can be subdued and challenged. You have a choice to stand up against it. You don't have to accept it. I wish that said staff member would have grown a pair and stood his ground. That would have at least aligned him with staff instead of prison gangs...

But this is life people, we don't always get to be around the best and we don't always get that Utopian atmosphere in which we hope for. This is reality and reality is where we live. The only way to change the atmosphere around you is to change yourself and stand your ground for what is right. Stick with moral principles, I know that I am trying finally.

with love,

Jeff Utnage