Surviving Daily (Mentally, Physically, Spiritually) While Incarcerated Part 1

America’s Penal Past

America’s penal history runs deep. In fact, the colonization of this country began as a penal experiment. England emptied its prisons of murderers, rapists, prostitutes, and thieves, placing them aboard ships and sending them here to conquer the native peoples and colonize the land. The earliest settlers of what would become the United States were England’s most notorious criminal outcasts.

Along with their criminality, these early colonizers brought with them a host of deadly diseases that devastated the indigenous population. They engaged in what can only be described as germ warfare, wiping out untold thousands of Native Americans. Diseases like smallpox, syphilis, and even the “common cold” ravaged communities, drastically reducing their numbers. When combined with the deceitful tactics imported from England, it’s clear that the native peoples stood little chance against this onslaught.

Even after colonization was firmly established, lawlessness continued to thrive. Despite successfully securing a foothold in the new world, the founders persisted in their criminal behavior. As a result, moral factions in the colonies determined that jails had to be built to punish wrongdoers.

The first jail built to house felons in America was the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, constructed in 1790 by Quakers. Prisoners there were subjected to intense religious instruction, forced into hard labor, and commanded to remain in total silence. There was no socializing, and harsh punishment was used to ensure that silence was maintained. Later prisons, such as those in Auburn, New York in the 1820s and the Elmira Reformatory in 1876, followed similar models. These institutions emphasized religious instruction, labor, and silence as tools of rehabilitation. However, these early penal systems failed due to the high rates of insanity caused by enforced silence, which drove many prisoners to madness.

Over the past century, penology—the study of prison management and criminal rehabilitation—has evolved into a sophisticated science. Today, people attend universities to major in this field, earning the title of “Penologist.” The inclusion of penology in major academic curriculums underscores its importance. No university offers useless courses of study, and penology serves a specific purpose. It is one of the “Five P’s” used to systematically control the unconscious masses: Philosophy, Psychology, Politics, Propaganda, and Penology.

It’s essential to highlight the long-standing connection between penology and labor. This relationship has had, and continues to have, a profound impact on Black people in America.

Past Victims

The connection between penology and labor traces back to the early prisons in the American colonies. Labor was a crucial component of the strict disciplinary systems in those times. Inmates were required to produce goods, which were sold, and a small portion of the profits was given to them as pay. However, the real beneficiaries of prison labor were the wardens.

After the Civil War, the country entered the Reconstruction era, a period lasting nearly 15 years. The war had caused extensive damage throughout the South, with plantations destroyed, crops dead, and no new planting seasons. As northern forces marched to victory, they looted and pillaged, leaving devastation in their wake. The South now required massive efforts for "reconstruction."

It is well documented that African slaves were integral to the development of the Western Hemisphere’s economy, which relied heavily on free labor. Slavery was one of the first large-scale capitalist ventures in the colonies, and the most successful of its time. African people brought with them important skills from their homelands—they were not just cotton and tobacco pickers, as mainstream history often portrays. They were brick masons, carpenters, farmers, weavers, doctors, and blacksmiths. If enslaved Africans had once built up the

South, white southerners saw no reason why they couldn't be exploited again.

Newly freed slaves were vulnerable to exploitation by white southerners, much like how native peoples were exploited by early settlers. Though they were legally free, many former slaves were hesitant to leave the plantations where they were born, making them easy targets for continued exploitation. Plantation owners enticed them with promises of better treatment, improved working conditions, and future pay. When these tactics failed, groups like the Ku Klux Klan used threats of violence, including lynching, to keep Blacks in line. By the end of Reconstruction, the South was thriving again.

At this time, industrialization had not yet arrived, and machines were not available to perform labor-intensive tasks. Yet, the work had to be done, and cheap labor was in high demand. This need gave rise to a new form of slavery: the "chain gang." In the South, most prisoners sentenced to chain gangs were Black men. The chain became a symbol of their continued bondage, signifying not just punishment for a crime, but a return to forced labor and harsh conditions, or "hard labor."

Thus, we see the connection between penology, the exploitation of Black people, and labor. Across the South, states and local plantation owners benefited most from this updated version of forced labor. Chain gangs cleared forests, built roads, constructed levees, plowed fields, and picked cotton. Often, these gangs were leased out to nearby farmers, making the chain gang an extension of slavery.

Present Victims

There are many factors that contribute to crime in this country. Over the years, studies have sought to pinpoint the root causes of criminal behavior, but no single cause or exact combination has been identified. Crime is a hot topic, and punishment has evolved into a profitable industry.

The average American, with little else to occupy their time, often sits at home watching crime-centric news on outlets like CNN. These networks exploit crime to boost their ratings—the more sensational the crime, the higher the ratings, and the more advertising revenue they generate. Shows like Court Cam further prey on the poor, broadcasting real footage of individuals fighting for their lives in the justice system. These “commercial crimes” feed into the cycle of exploitation.

Constant exposure to crime through the media numbs people’s capacity for compassion toward those who commit offenses. The focus shifts away from understanding what might have driven a person to commit a crime, and the public only becomes concerned with punishment. This desensitized audience calls for harsh sentences, shouting, “Lock them up forever!” or “They ought to be fried!” This emotional, reactive mindset often seeps into our own communities, with many parroting these ideas—until, of course, it’s someone close to them, like a nephew or brother, facing death row. Only then do they begin to ask what might have caused their loved one to go down the wrong path. And there are many answers.

Attitudes about criminal behavior vary greatly depending on the country. Take Japan, for example. There, when someone commits a crime, it’s seen as a failure of society to provide the necessary environment to help that person grow into a productive member of the community. Rehabilitation is a priority. In contrast, in the United States, crime is viewed as an individual’s failure, and lengthy punishment is seen as the best solution. Society washes its hands of responsibility, despite its role in creating the conditions that breed criminal behavior.

Consider this scenario: a police decoy staggers down a dark street at night pretending to be drunk, with a large wad of cash visible in his pocket. Someone walks by, sees the cash, grabs it, and runs—only to be caught by the police. In criminal law, this is known as “entrapment.” The person who snatched the money was set up by the police. Similarly, society sets up circumstances in our environments—poverty, drugs, guns, and the glorification of violence in music and television—that entrap some of our people into criminal behavior.

When drugs flood our neighborhoods, when guns are easily accessible, and when our youth are constantly exposed to violence in media, the idea of “entrapment” holds some weight. Society should bear some responsibility for the conditions it has created, but instead, it jails people en masse. The United States incarcerates more Black people than even apartheid-era South Africa. It manufactures criminals and locks them away, maintaining large prison populations because it’s beneficial to do so.

One reason for this is population control—fewer Black men means fewer Black babies. Another reason is that prisons provide employment for many poor, uneducated individuals who would otherwise struggle to find work. But the biggest reason is that incarceration is profitable. Those behind bars are exploited for their labor, and today’s prisons are highly industrialized.

Many high-quality products are made in prisons, and assembly lines operate in several institutions. Gone are the days of prisoners merely pressing license plates. Large corporations now use prisons as a cheap labor source, free from the interference of labor unions. Companies like TWA, AT&T, MCI, and Best Western are just a few that benefit from prison labor.

A stark example of this exploitation is Ohio Penal Industries (OPI), which runs factories in nearly all of Ohio’s prisons. OPI generates massive profits by paying prisoners slave wages, all under the guise of “training” them for jobs upon release—though it does little to help them find employment afterward. There are no unions, no compensation for injuries, and no safety nets for the workers. The average OPI prisoner earns less than $50 a month for 40 hours of work. Competing businesses struggle to keep up with OPI’s low prices because OPI’s labor costs are almost nonexistent.

In recent years, a trend has emerged where private companies can present a cost-effective plan and win the right to operate prisons—and essentially, to own the people incarcerated within them. The key incentive for these companies is access to a captive labor force. They can then contract with outside companies to produce goods using prison labor. Given that the majority of prisoners are Black, it’s easy to draw a parallel between this exploitation and the chain gangs of the past.

 A Scenario Of Victimization

America's criminal justice system is not based upon justice or fair play. It is predicated on lies, trickery, & deceit. Whether one of us is innocent or guilty, we must recognize that when we enter the courtroom, we have entered a bloody arena, where the prize at stake is our lives. Anything goes. Rights violations, prosecutor misconduct, coercion, perjured testimony, falsified reports, & the list goes on. What the prosecutor seeks is that initial conviction, because he knows that the appeal process will drag on to years. While you rot behind bars, your appeal briefs will collect dust on some obscure judge's desk.

When we are indicted for our alleged wrongs, many times we are overcharged for the crime itself. They rack up many related charges that stem from one offense. We are faced with staggering amounts of time & our minds reel at the thought of doing so much time. A thousand years?! All I did was.., you ask & say. It is basic psychology. It is to ensure your full cooperation when you are offered the coveted "Deal" that will allow you to spend less time behind bars. Actually, it is a ruse to frighten you into accepting a plea agreement for something that the prosecutor would be hard pressed to fairly prove against you anyway. Many co-defendants are tricked this way into offering testimony in exchange for lighter sentences or in some cases even total immunity for crimes they helped commit.

One essential thing to understand is that the sincere looking attorney who is supposed to defend & protect your rights is in fact a "Sworn Officer of the court". He is bound by some oath of judicial fealty of which you know absolutely nothing about. Why, you'll never see the light of day! Take the deal! Its a good deal. With time off for good behavior you'll be back out in a few years. The smooth talking, reassuring attorney says. The dockets are full. He is no more than an amateur actor with mediocre legal abilities.

He plays his part again & again. Its his job to ensure that the wheels of injustice continue to spin smoothly. He is the golfing buddy of the judge, the cousin of the prosecutor. He may have been a prosecutor himself once. They lunch together every afternoon. Their children attend the same private schools. They belong to the same clubs, the same lodge, they may even swap wives. Their allegiances are only to each other & not to you. For those who refuse to take the coveted deal, there will be hell to pay for having the nerve to buck the accepted system of things.

You won't be dealt with fairly because you are poor. You will not be afforded a jury of your peers. The legal terms they use are spoken in Latin, a dead (buried & thus hidden) language, only spoken (and kept alive) by priests at the Vatican. Witnesses are coached in what to say. The police intimidate your witnesses to not appear in court. Hand signals are given & passwords are spoken. Objections are overruled by the judge with a nod & a sly wink. You sit in the midst of some Masonic ritual taking place. Your silence is assured. You are threatened with exposure of your criminal past (if you have one) if you dare to speak in your own defense. The cards are well stacked against you & chances are you will go to jail.

Many of us lack a fundamental belief in ourselves; therefore, we lack faith & confidence in the abilities of those professionals of our race to perform accurately when things count most, we feel somehow that their education & training isn't on an equal footing with their White counterparts. We have been brainwashed to assume that a Black attorney isn't capable of competently representing our interests in the Whitman's court of law. "Now don't you go in there with no ni**a lawyer. Get you a good Jew Lawyer. You go down there with a n***a lawyer & you'll end up with more time. That is standard advice. By such a notion of Slave Wisdom we fall easy prey into the clutches of the corrupt white attorneys.

If we fully understood what we were up against, we would see that no one should represent us other than another Black person. There are many White attorney's who earn their livelihoods extracting pounds of Black flesh inside America's Halls Of Injustice. They continuously deal Black lives away by the draft strokes of their pens. They trade in Black bodies as their slave owning forefather's did in the days of old. These attorneys deal cases with the prosecutors & collect bribes when we have the ability to pay. To these white attorneys we are just unsuspecting victims.

~ Written By @AskForCorey