Previously this week, the felonista was bitched
slapped. In Episode 1, the
fools name was withheld, and she was identified as Ms.
Bad. She does not deserve
that protection- her name was Dimeta Good! I have to give it to Dimeta- it took
a lot of heart to bitch slap me!
There are 88
counties in the state of Ohio.
Marysville is the first stop to drop
off sentenced inmates for classification and processing. The three major cities
that sentence and transport the most inmates annually to
Marysville is Cleveland,
Columbus, and Cincinnati Ohio.
Prisons have an internal culture of its own, and Marysville
was no different.
Marysville was built to hold a maximum of 200 inmates. There were four cottages
originally.
Elizabeth, Lincoln, Washington, and the A-Building were the names.
New Cottage was constructed after the main four, to
accommodate pregnant women
and their small children.
At the turn of the 20th Century, for the first 30 years,
prisons were constructed with the purpose of
rehabilitation. One of the goals was
to preserve the family structure. Small children remained in the care and
custody
of their mothers.
Regular weekend furloughs home along with trailer visits with
your spouse and children were the norm. Mississippi and parts of New York still
offer family and trailer visits for the weekend for
inmates.
All four cottages
had single rooms that an inmate could work their way to, in
a short period of time.
The upper floor of the administrative building was used to
house lifers and women that qualified as honor status. It took on the average
of five years minimum to gain consideration for an honor
unit. Most inmates did
not qualify for honor housing. That was fine with me. I was simply passing through.
When the prison system turned into a business, the
population of Marysville
increased like all other facilities, from the capacity limit
of 200, to 2000 by the end
of the Twentieth Century. A maximum of 100 inmates, or 5%
are actually violent
and should be housed in prison. Canada does not support prisoners as a
business,
and neither does other countries. In Italy, non-violent offenders sentenced to
under two years are placed on house arrest, allowed to go to
work, and continue
to pay taxes. The
famous, magificent designers, Dolce and Gabanna recently
were sentenced to 27 months, but still running their
business daily and living
in their own homes.
They are also paying taxes and supporting their families.
Imagine that.
How Ohio increased their population 10-fold was by adding
units. J.G., which was
originally the officer's unit, was coverted as an inmate
housing unit. Then the
Arn complex was built, consisting of Arn One, Two, Three and
Four, with Arn Four
serving as the segregated housing unit. Shortly after, Hale and Kennedy 1 was
completed. I heard
that the construction of Kennedy II was in the making, and
a new admissions building was constructed outside of the
fence.
All over the country, state and county governments announced
a "build and they
will come" initiative.
Cities were given low income loans and bonds to pay for new
construction of prisons. The politicians that supported mass
incarceration labeled
prisons as cash cows, and guaranteed job security and income
for otherwise default
cities. Every small
city around the country that built a prison stayed alive because
of prison business and job creation. However, because the country did not take the
money or the time to create proper water systems, state
prison water is either not
safe to drink, or doesn't work consistently. An example of this is Alderson Federal
Prison Camp. The camp
population was approximately 1200 inmates when I was
housed there. The
city of Alderson's total population was only 1000. The prison had
more women concentrated in a small area than the entire
city. Needless to say,
Port-a-potties and bottled water were the norm. The city did not put in a new water
and irrigation system when they added the prison. The system in place could not
facilitate 1200 women showering, washing clothes, and
drinking water all day.
Water problems are the norm.
State sentences
were given out by the degree
of felony. A 5th
degree felony carries county time, or up to six months in prison.
A 4th degree felony carries from 6 months to 18 months
maximum time in prison.
In the state of Ohio, you only do two-thirds of your
sentence, so an 18-month sentence
equates to one year in prison if you earn all of your good
time credit.
All felonies that
are lower than a fourth degree felony commonly involves an act
of violence, or an enhancement. Robbery, kidnapping and murder is designated
as
a first degree or second degree felony by the Ohio Revised
Code governing crimes.
There are three
states in America that sentence people to life sentences, without
any possibility of mitigating circumstances or parole;
Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and
Massachusetts.
Ironically, these three states are commonwealth with their own
constitution and statutes.
They also were the last to join the Union when America
became the United States. The other clear result of housing
inmates for life with
no mitigation or possibility for parole for identified
crimes is the states large number
of inmates. The three
states mentioned are severely overcrowded.
The death
of the inmate serving LWOP will always decrease the
population by one. Crazy, but
real.
Ohio considers 15
years a life sentence. After completing
15 years, a lifer is
eligible to see the parole board. Lifers often receive at least one flop. A flop is when
an inmate goes before the parole board panel after
completing 15 years, and then
given an additional flop sentence of five years. Even with excellent behavior, the
parole board considers public safety and plays it safe. An additional Five years flop
is the norm for Lifers sentenced in Ohio.
Once a Lifer
serves 20 years, the possibility for parole becomes realistic. Parole
is where an inmate remains under the supervision of a parole
officer for a determined
amount of time. The
parole board decides the number of years an inmate will remain
on parole, as well as the conditions and restrictions of
parole.
The justice
system has evolved full circle. The 20th
Century began with rehabilitation
of inmates throughout America. The prison system developed into a caste
system
and a prison industrial complex, aiding big business. Author Eric Schollser and Civil
Rights Activist, Angela Davis has wrote extensively about
the perils of the prison
industrial complex.
Many government
and state leaders, along with politicians joined the initiative
to warehouse human beings. The goal has been an agreed
minimal of 10% increase in
the prison population.
That number has been exceeded each year by broad sentencing
laws, and mandatory minimum laws for non-violent and low
level offenders. Within
the 20th Century, America has evolved into a prison country,
and politicians are afraid
to take a stand against the capitalist, oppressive system,
because they want to win
elections.
Another way that
the system has come full circle is that the same initiative that
promoted cities building new prisons across America is now
defunct. Georgia, Texas
and several other states filed law suits early this year
against city, county, state and
federal government officials because they did build, but the
large cash cow structures
are sucking up their cash.
Cities already strapped built new prisons, waiting for inmates
to come, only to find themselves stuck with additional
taxes, utility bills, and large
empty new buildings.
Good for them. Instead of the
inmate population growing as
promised by the politicians participating in this farce, the
number of inmates being
sentenced all over America has declined right along with the
number of crimes being
committed. Cities and
states can no longer depend on inmates for income growth.
Since the
recession, city and state budgets have been slashed. America is releasing
inmates and looking at Alternatives to sentencing. The taxpayers can no longer be
persuaded to support an 80 billion dollar prison bill at the
Department of Justice, when
the system is broken, and has always been broken.
Now, cities and
states are being forced to release low level, non-violent offenders
to home confinement and other punishments, and allow them to
pay into the tax base
like everyone else.
Jails are closing each year all over the country. Because I understand
why they were created in the first place, this result is
very exciting for me. Also, it
is to be noted that according to the crime report from the
United States Department of
Justice, over the past three years, since the closing of
many state prisons, the crime
rate has decreased slightly in some categories and more
noticeable in others.
Can America redeem herself from being a prison Country?
Time will tell.
Today, Eric
Holder, United States Attorney General is not afraid to advocate for change.
He is the head
of the Justice System, and is now playing a dual role of
abandoning the capitalist system,
and rallying as a Civil Rights leader. One of the lead reporters that is not an Eric
Holder fan stated that "Eric Holder is using the
Department of Justice as a Civil Rights
Shrine." Mr. Holder
is, and I am very proud of him. At
first, I was in inner conflict
about this. His
picture is hanging in the main lobby of this prison for all visitors and
inmates
to see. President
Obama represents the leader of the free world,
but Eric Holder is unmistakably
the head of the locked up world-all prisons belong to the
Justice System, and he
is the number one in charge.
I asked myself was it possible that I had been locked up too
long and converted to the "house nigger" syndrome
that many institutionalized inmates
embrace? I wrestled
with the concept at first. Prison is an
extension of slavery, and
is backed by Amendment 13 of the constitution. During slavery, a captive that praised
the person and master, was none other than a house
nigger. How could you respect and
idolize the person who holds you captive? I had to process this. This is the first time
I have spoken my true thoughts of Eric Holder out loud- GO
ERIC HOLDER- Go Eric!, Go
Eric!, and he even deserves a two-step dance from me.
I am here witnessing the women coming through the prison
doors with very short sentences
that haven't existed in over 20 years, since mandatory
minimum sentences were put
into place.
April 10th, 2014, the Sentencing Commission will vote on the
all drugs-minus-two law.
That will give all drug offenders approximately 11 months
off their sentence, and Eric Holder
is in support of this amendment fully.
There is not much
on the table for white collar offenders like myself at this time.
The Recidivism Reduction bill was extremely watered down, in
order to eliminate people
like myself. I was
sentenced under a criminal history category VI,and according to the
politicians, people like me, who have been statistics of
recidivism are not eligible. This
is backwards, because we are the ones that need it
most. How can they think that I am
the same person as I was ten years ago? We either get better or worse, but no one is
the
same. Of course I
will file all the way to Washington to get the same credit as all other
inmates for good behavior.
Eric Holder has
implemented a clear agenda on prison reform, and reducing the 80 billion
dollar a year taxpayer's burden spent for babysitting
non-violent offenders.
I
respect the work that he is doing and appreciate the change of direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment