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In 1990, at 47, I was tried and convicted for cocaine conspiracy. The court sentenced me to 25yrs in federal prison. To that point, my adult careers included journalism, criminal and civil investigations, and left-political activism.
One might imagine my surprise to find that most predatory criminals are not in prison. In fact, for the most part they rule the nation, its business and its laws (and the prisons for that matter). more…
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(Note: The following article is written for my many comrades on the other side of the razor-wire, and for those who have a stake in their welfare and their future…and just maybe your own as well.)
Education isn’t everything…
Education in prison is like rehabilitation: The only way you get out rehabilitated is if you already had it to begin with, or you mostly accomplish it on your own. Prison per se is today–under the conservative regimen–workhouses for punishment and retribution. more…
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“If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face–forever.” George Orwell, 1984.
(Click to enlarge...)
When I went to prison in 1990, I had careers in journalism, criminal defense investigation, and political organizing behind me (I was then 48).
I had also completed 3 yrs at Wayne State University (Detroit).
Given the time and opportunity I had with a 25-yr sentence, one way I coped was with a determination to complete my formal education. more…
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The following is an historical rendition. It is not the conservative pipedreams of Republicans, the OCD delusions of Glenn Beck, the corporatist propaganda of the Koch Brothers and their Tea Party, or Rupert Murdoch and his Faux News.
During the American Revolution of the 1770s and ‘80s, about 1/3rd of the colonists came to support the struggle, another third oppose, and the last third condemned the actions and violence of both sides. Most rebellions, when they’re ripe, tend to follow this pattern.
Corporate Religion...
Many of the Indian native inhabitants, like the Canaanites in the ancient Levant, certainly had first dibs on the land. The European colonists were simply the latest manifestation of self-appointed “chosen people.”
These natives largely supported the British side, because one of the main aims of the colonists was unlimited expansion west and the virtual genocide of the Indians. Britain had outlawed colonial moves into the Ohio Valley, etc.
African slaves also tended to side with the Brits since they were promised their freedom in return. more…
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I recall one time when the supervisor of the education dept at FCI Ray Brook, Lake Placid, NY, asked me, “Are you claiming you’re innocent?”
I was stumped for a moment. The question was a non sequitur, out of the blue. We had been discussing their withholding my grade-one pay at the prison factory for the requirement that I take a GED exam (I already had 3 yrs of university).
After the first couple of yrs of my 25-yr sentence, I had ceased arguing my conviction. What was the point? No one was listening, and the courts were not following their own law.
In my own experience, few prisoners claim innocence. Their argument, like my own, was often some form of mitigated circumstance, mischarging, over-charging, dirty deals with snitches, and outright manipulation and manufacturing of evidence.
“Actually,” I answered, “Yes. Of the crime charged (membership in a certain cocaine conspiracy), I am innocent.”
He startled the room by jumping up, clapping his hands, and gleefully laughing. Reaching out to me, he said, “Let me shake your hand. Every day for the past 16 yrs I’ve worked in the prison system, I’ve heard about convicts who claim that they’re innocent. You’re the first one I’ve actually met!” Clearly, he had a regular shtick… more…
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Over the course of 20+ yrs in federal prison, I’ve come up with a number of idea constructions to deal with my time and circumstances, and responses to a variety of behaviors and problems that confront me—and others.
Amageddonouttahere...
Being perceived as an “Old Head” and a professional, I get my share of newbies dealing with the prison problems. (I completed my formal education thru an accredited doctorate in psychology [PsyD], and specialize in forensic applications.)
Many prisoners are themselves professionals, and some even officers in the military and corporate world.
One of the most surprising factors for them is the fact that prison is little like they imagined. Once one gets past the jail/court menagerie, prison itself is basically composed of a mindless warehousing routine (wake, work, rest, sleep). more…
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When I was finishing up my dissertation for a Doctor of Psychology degree (PsyD), one of the observational-introspective subjects that I had was one of my own cellmates at the time, Scott Robin Roston, #87144-012. 
Experimental subjects, obviously, were not available to me as a doctoral student. But the prison itself–staff and inmates–was a living laboratory second to none…
Roston is a textbook case of being a sociopath and OCD behaviors. An extreme example of the 3%-or-so in the BOP. He ended up being sentenced to prison for 34 years after beating and throwing his honeymoon bride of 9 days to her death off a cruise ship. She had infuriated him by “eating sweets, and using the wrong utensils” at the ship’s dinner table. more…
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“Hey, Mac! You got a minute?”
Finishing up some production procurements on the govt’s internal computer system, I strolled over to where several fellow prison Business Office workers and the Associate Warden (AW) were having an argument.
Being one of the resident inmates taking college courses, I had occasion to being asked information and opinions related to education.
It was 1994. We were in a federal, medium-security prison. Congress was debating legislation to eliminate prisoners from getting Pell Grants. more…
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After my first year in prison, 1990, I was called into a prison factory manager’s office (UNICOR) and informed that my scheduled pay raise to grade one ($1.15/hr.) had been blocked by the Education Department. He said that they claimed that I did not have my GED.
Start 'em young...
(Congress had deemed that inmates be schooled to at least a GED level. That without at least a GED they could not go beyond grade 2 pay, among other losses of “privileges.” To understand the retributive/punishment regimen of the prison system, it is necessary to realize that all rules, regulations and programs also have these facets for inmate control and compliance.) more…
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