Usually when a person is incarcerated, there is a blackout period in which the prisoner is unable to communicate with the outside. It can be a couple days to about a week. It's a scary time as you might imagine for any friends and family because they have no idea what is happening to their loved one: if they are eating, if they are safe, if they are alive. I don't really understand why this is the case but it has something to do with the fact that once a person enters the prison they are simply at the mercy of the system. And the system is not designed to rehabilitate: it is designed to punish and isolate.
Let's take what happened with our own Chris Spicer. Chris went in on January 5th. He was able to speak to his parents the day of and his advocate very briefly on day 2. But then there was silence for almost 14 days. No one in Chris' community heard from him: his legal advocate, his support at the White Rose Catholic Worker, his parents. For almost two weeks, no one heard Chris' voice or received as much as a letter.
His parents of course were admittedly very concerned. They did not understand what was going on, why Chris couldn't contact them. Chris, come to find out, didn't understand what was happening either.
You see, a key thing is that once you enter you have no money. This is hard for us to really understand on the outside. You have NO MONEY...not ten bucks, not one dollar, zippo. And if you have no money, you can't make a phone call and you can't buy stamps (never mind extra food or a pair of socks).
It turns out they have something called a commissary fund where people can send small amounts of money to the prisoner to buy things like stamps and socks. Chris' parents had indeed sent $50 for Chris right after his sentencing. They had followed the jail's policy and yet Chris did not receive the money. So the days roll by, and no one knows what is going on.
In the meantime, Fr. Bob does thankfully have a visit with Chris. It was a Thursday, about a week into Chris sentence. We find out that, yes, Chris is alive and in fact doing quite well in terms of finding his place there with the other inmates (Thank God). Fr. Bob passes on the news to Chris' parents and to all of us. Now, Fr. Bob, who drives from about an hour away to Irwin County Jail, is eager to return the following Thursday for a visit. So he calls the prison a day or so out only to find out: "Oh, I'm sorry sir, you can only visit male inmates in the morning." Uhm, since when? It wasn't that way last week or last month. Well, tough luck, buddy, they changed the rules. Too bad for you, and definitely too bad for Chris.
What is going on here?
What IS going on here? That is the question. I don't know, but I do know a private company is running this prison for profit. Yep, you heard me. And Irwin County Jail is not the only place where this is happening; it is happening all over the country. Prisons are Big Business, and like all companies priority number 1 is to make money. Not to rehabilitate, not to necessarily provide the best incarceration system. No, it's money -- and it sure seems like these companies can do what they want, when they want. And who cares anyway, they are servicing the lowest of the low -- the drain on society. So what if they focus on profits at the expense of you and I and our friends and family and all those people who have no one to stand up for them. So what if they focus on profits at the expense of the overall wellness of our ENTIRE SOCIETY.
There's more.
Chris needs meds. Before going in, he procured a letter from his doctor according to prison policy. Does Irwin County Jail follow this? One guess...that's right kids, NO. They decide that Chris needs to be evaluated by one of their doctors to see if in fact Chris does need medication. Would these be the same doctors whose salary is paid for by the company running the prison, the company who wants to make the most profit so maybe won't actually give Chris what he needs if it costs them more money? Hmmmm. Something smells funny....let's get Erin Brockovich on the case. (And of course they don't hop right to it but a whole 2 and a half weeks goes by with no movement to even evaluate Chris.)
So it begs the question: if you commit a crime and are caught and sentenced, along with your freedom do you give up your human dignity? What rights are you allowed to keep and which ones are we stripping away? This question might be easy to answer in thinking about Chris because we know and love him, but what about others: drug dealers, prostitutes...or even murders, rapists, robbers. Do we feel the same about them? Are they entitled to call a friend to tell them how they are doing? Are they entitled to the expensive medication they may need?
In the end, Chris' Dad Dave came tearing out of the hornet's nest and took on the system with phone in hand and a testy attitude. He placed multiple calls over several days to the warden, to support staff at the prison, to Chris' advocate Bob. Dave even got Senator Murray's office in the loop with Ed O'Neill calling the prison. So finally, on January 18th, 13 days after his son was sentenced, Dave spoke with Chris. They straightened out his commissary privileges and Chris has been able to call and to send snail mail.
It is lucky that Chris has someone educated and dedicated enough to advocate on his behalf. Something tells me the others might not be so lucky.
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