The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allot a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison.
~ Nathaneil Hawthorn, The Scarlet Letter
Prison. The place where we put the bad people. Well not all people who end up in prison are bad people. A lot of them are just poor, young and uneducated people. Gang people end up in prison too. Drugies end up there as well. When ya think about it for a democratic country we have one big prison population problem.
I think this is one place where I do not want to go.
Lock Up on channel MSMBC it has an interesting on-going documentary on prison life. I watch it more than I like too.
For me it is walking with the shadow into an unbearable cruel world. What is wrong with us? I keep wondering what is it that I could do to change our prison system. How do I live knowing that others are suffering so much? Wake up!
It amazes me seeing the ability prisoners have to adjust to such an unjust system of control; but survival is the key here and love is found too.
Tom Gaddis (narrating):
“Working with a razor blade and a jagged piece of glass, Stroud cut 128 slats, in addition to roof boards, tier bars, gate pieces, and a handle. Every joint was charred for hardness, and hand-fitted, since he had no glue. The birdcage took seven months to complete.”
The Birdman of Alcatraz is an amazing individual to study when thinking about what kind of transformation an imprisoned individual can achieve in the worst of living conditions.
http://www.alcatrazhistory.com/stroud.htm
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/27118605/ns/msnbc_tv-documentaries
