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Today's
Stories
April 29
Patrick Cockburn
The Fallujah Mutinies
April
28, 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
Meet Congressman Know-Nothing:
Tom Tancredo
Wendy
Brinker
The Politics of the Numb
Faisal
Kutty
The Dirty Work of Canadian Intelligence
John
Chuckman
Seeking the Evil One
Mike
Whitney
Flag-Draped Coffins and the Seattle Times
Tom
Mountain
Rwanda and the F***** Word
Graeme
Greenback
The Iraqi Alamo: a CNN/CIA Production
Tracy
McLellan
The War Comes Home
M.
Junaid Alam
We are the Barbarians
William
Loren Katz
Iraq, the US and an Old Lesson
April 27, 2004
James
Davis
The Colombia 3 Acquitted
Dave
Lindorff
Chalabi as Prosecutor
Bruce
Schneier
Terrorist Threats and Political
Gain
Cockburn
/ Sengupta
British Generals Resist Calls for
More Troops to Aid Americans in Iraq
Walt
Brasch
Presidential Letters: The Day I
Was Asked to Feed an Elephant
Saul
Landau
The Empire in Denial and the Denial
of Empire
April 26, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Crossing the Shia Line: US Troops
Prepare to Enter Najaf
Wayne
Madsen
Trading Places: Will the US Go the Way of the USSR?
Grover
Furr
Protest, Rebellion, Commitment
Elaine
Cassel
Lies About the Patriot Act
Mickey
Z.
Inspired by Pat Tillman?
Greg
Moses
Bremer's De-De-Ba'athjfication Gambit
Gila
Svirsky
Anarchy in Our Souls
Uri
Avnery
Vanunu and the Terrible Secret
April 24 / 25, 2004
William
A. Cook
Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Kerry
and Bush Melt into One
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Stryking Out: a General, GM and the Army's Latest Tank
Brandy
Baker
A Revitalized Women's Movement? Let's Hope So
Robert
Fisk
A Warning to Those Who Dare Criticize Israel in the Land of Free
Speech
Ben
Tripp
October Surmise: a Case of Worst Scenarios
Nelson
Valdés
"Submit or Die": Iraq and the American Borg
Lucson
Pierre-Charles
Haiti's Return to the Future
Kurt
Nimmo
The CIA Killed Pat Tillman
Mark
Scaramella
Does Anybody Know Anything?
Patrick
Cockburn
The Return of Saddam's Generals
Gary
Engler
Welcome to La Paz: a Vacation in Tear Gas
Col.
Dan Smith
Whistling in the Dark: Israel, Palestine and Bush
Greg
Weiher
Iraq is Utterly Unlike Vietnam...
Elaine
Cassel
Life on the Outside: a Review
Vanessa
Jones
Letter from Australia: Why an Independent Won Sydney
Jim
French
Agriculture's Bullied Market
Hammond
Guthrie
Al Aronowitz, Bob Dylan and The Beatles
Poets'
Basement
Jones, Holt, Albert, LaMorticella
April 23, 2004
Ron
Jacobs
The Only Solution is Immediate Withdrawal
Dave
Lindorff
Imagination Deficit Disorder
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Contractors and Mercenaries: the Rising Corporate Military Monster
Norman
Solomon
Country Joe Band, 2004: "What Are We Fighting For?"
Cynthia
McKinney
All Things Are Not Equal: the Perils of Globalization
CounterPunch
Wire
A Bitch Called Wanda
Karyn
Strickler
Sierra Club, Inc.
Hammond
Guthrie
Yellow Caked in the Face
Paul
de Rooij
Graveyard of Justifications: Glossary
of the Iraqi Occupation
April 22, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
When Terror Came to Basra: "I
Saw a Minibus of Children on Fire"
Tanya
Reinhart
The Wall Behind Disengagement
Lance
Selfa
Why is Kucinich Still in the Race?
Josh
Frank
Street Fighting Man? Kucinich's Pulled Punches
Sen.
Robert Byrd
Bush Owes America Answers on Iraq
William
S. Lind
Why We Get It Wrong
Mickey
Z.
Undoing the Latches
Robert
Jensen
Why They Fast: Remembering the Victims of the World Bank
John
L. Hess
The New York Times from 30,000 Feet
April
21, 2004
Gary
Leupp
Yeats on Iraq
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia's Forgotten Prisoners
Dr.
Susan Block
Bush's Taliban Drug Deal
William
A. Cook
George 1 to George 2
Jack
Random
Iraq and Vietnam
Jean-Guy
Allard
Alarcon Meets the Editors
Mike
Whitney
Charade in the Desert
Bill
Christison
Only Major Policies Changes Can
Help Washington Now
| April
29, 2004
Inside Pekin
The
Warden's Tour
By KATHY KELLY
Pekin Federal
Prison Camp
Several
times, during weekday evenings, students pursuing careers as "correction
officers" have peered through the window of our rooms, they tour
the compound, visiting various units. Their teacher, an Assistant Warden
at Pekin FCI (Federal Corrections Institute), guides them.
I
wonder what students think and say after completing the tour.
I'm
surprised, myself, at how manageable the room I share with 9 other prisoners
seems to be, just now. Sunlight floods the 18' x 18' space which contains
6 bunk beds, one single bed, 8 lockers, a wooden table and 4 plastic
chairs. It could pass for a dorm at an inexpensive youth hostel. Catholic
Worker houses of hospitality across the country similarly try to utilize
space to shelter as many people as possible. With warmer weather here,
some women have replaced olive colored wool blankets with white bedspreads.
This brightens the room. Today is Sunday. Soft snores sound comforting
to me, as several women, who worked all week, most earning 12 cents
per hour, are "sleeping in" and sleeping soundly.
The
Pekin, IL Federal Prison Camp, FPC, assigns new prisoners to this space,
called "the bus stop," until a bed is freed in one of the
two "alleys," or corridors. Prisoners who violate a rule are
also sent here, as punishment. Four of us are newcomers. Six have been
placed here for discipline.
"The
bus stop is turning into a war zone," one young prisoner observed,
earlier today, over breakfast. "Didn't you hear that argument last
night?" I'm glad I slept through it. My friend told me that several
women returned from a card game, close to midnight and awakened others
by rustling through lockers and slamming doors. An argument erupted,
leading to an exasperated threat, by one woman, to "snitch."
Squabbles between crowded, anxious prisoners are predictable, and they
surely wear on people. But the most remarkable feature of prison life,
from my limited experience, (I served 9 months in a maximum security
prison in 1989), is the quiet courage that generally prevails amongst
the majority of women prisoner's I've met.
The
living conditions in prisons may not appear onerous to visitors on guided
tours. Decisions to limit possessions, issue clothing, and regulate
fixed daily schedules can be justified as sensible measures. Many communities,
such as the Catholic Worker Houses of Hospitality, struggle with issues
that arise over sharing space, meals, tasks, and house rules. The cruel
flaw in the prison system lies in the intent to punish people rather
than help them. Women must develop and draw from extraordinary reserves
of positive, creative energy to battle against the tedium, the routine,
and the enforced idleness that descends on people-"the prison fog,"
as one former prisoner described it.
Mothers
separated from their children face deepest grief, often feel intense
guilt, and yet try to mother their children from afar. Throughout long
days, months and years of imprisonment, women learn to cope with resentment
toward those who profit from their incarceration-the judges, prosecutors,
prison architects, corporation executives and the paid employees of
the prisons.
Apparent
"management" was on display for our wide-eyed student visitors
this month. But systems, regulations, routines and carefully designed
units mask the futility and stupidity of the US prison-industrial complex.
Just a few conversations with prisoners swiftly uncover the chaos and
confusion caused by wrongheaded policies, which the student visitors
are prepared to enforce.
"I
was abused every day of my life, as a child," said one young prisoner.
"I felt like the only added thing they could do to me was kill
me." She's a talented artist. Almost every day, she sketches and
colors portraits and scenery on starched handkerchiefs. Working on the
floor, next to the bus stop table, she carefully letters "I am
the resurrection and the life," next to the visage of Jesus' face
which she has just drawn. She can't leave the bus stop until she agrees
to pay a court imposed fine. "I'm not going to impose that fine
on my relatives," she states, while shading Jesus's cheekbones.
"There's nothing these people can do that scares me. I don't care
if I spend my whole sentence in the bus stop."
Imagine
a young woman who recalls suffering abuse almost everyday of her childhood
growing up to learn that authorities who never helped her then have
now set up a decade of punishment for the beginning of her adult life.
Once, she escaped into drug use. A court convicted her of a nonviolent
drug-related crime. Now she dreams of becoming a missioner in a far
away land.
Some
may say that the prison system is necessary so that society can isolate
abusive people from defenseless victims. That's not true. Abusive people
can be separated from victims and helped to cope with their sick behavior
without losing every other human freedom. Again, the Catholic Worker
Houses of Hospitality come to mind. Working as volunteers, seeking merely
the chance to join communities dedicated to the works of mercy and simple
living, hundreds of idealistic, kindly people have set up havens for
their fellow human beings, aiming to treat them as guests and together
form community. At no cost to US tax payers, these communities have
been replicated in many of the neediest sections of urban and rural
America. They make it plausible to envision alternatives to lengthy
incarcerations of people who've committed nonviolent crimes. They offer
a shining testament to the wrongheaded inadequacy of the US prison system
as a means to solve human problems.
Five
cottonwood trees grow on the compound, plus one maple tree and one fir
tree. Some women prisoners have watched these trees grow since they
were seedlings, planted six years ago. The Pekin prison camp doesn't
attract many birds, but during early morning hours we hear birdsongs
from nearby fields. I'm often reminded of a bird taking flight when
I see a woman's spirits soar because of an unexpected compliment or
simple, sincere words of appreciation.
I
see women's spirits uplifted many times each day. Equally edifying are
the persistent efforts to generate legislative action on prison reform
bills, particularly those that would reduce long sentences. This weekend,
an efficient team of women created and distributed information about
way to build support for HR 4036 which Rep. Danny Davis D-IL introduced
into the House of Representatives on March 25, 2004. The bill would
revise the system of parole for federal inmates. Even "short-term"
prisoners eagerly notify their friends and relatives "on the outside"
to push for this legislation. Mail call, a particularly intense half-hour,
follows the 4:00 p.m. daily count, on weekdays. Women cluster around
a plastic mail bin. A guard reads aloud a name on each envelope in the
bin and waits for the recipient to say "Pass it."
"We
live for mail call," said a long-term prisoner. "It's our
only lifeline to the outside." Pangs of disappointment flash across
many faces, as most women walk away empty handed. But that quiet courage
returns.
The
Assistant Warden's curious students probably won't study stories of
quietly courageous women who survive the managed but cruelly stupid
criminal justice system in the US. They'll very likely read, write and
talk about security and safety, learning ways to supposedly safeguard
US communities from threats to their well-being. I believe they're being
taught by people who've engendered a false sense of security, amongst
US people, by helping expand a burgeoning network of "correctional
facilities." If teachers and researchers concerned with security
issues were to address the gravest problems that threaten US people
today, they would study ways to abolish the manufacture, storage, sale
and threatened use of nuclear weapons. They would work to abolish the
causes of war. They'd identify and help prevent the devastating environmental
damage that rages against our planet's biodiversity. They'd promote
honest assessment of the major causes of premature death in our society,
e.g., traffic accidents, many of them caused by drunk driving; tobacco
use, obesity, and use of firearms. They'd challenge themselves to promote
a healthier society, educating young people to resist slick marketing
strategies that lure them into consuming and paying for bad products.
Initiating
and pursuing wide curricula that would revamp current notions of providing
security would require courageous innovators who could persevere when
the odds are against them. Where can we return for role models who exemplify
determined, persistent courage? One place I'd recommend is Pekin FPC.
In the short span of time I'll spend here, it will be a privilege and
a gift to absorb even a fraction of the quiet enduring courage I observe.
The
Warden's Tour is too short, too superficial. I wish he and his students
would venture inside the "bus stop," and stay for just three
days. It could save them from participating in an abysmally failed system.
Kathy
Kelly can be reached through Voices in the Wilderness at: john@vitw.org
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