Transcript
Correcting Corrections by Zab Real Corrections… The Department of Corrections… From the inside of my cell, looking out, I sometimes sit and ponder the question as to what do they seriously call themselves correcting? With a -return to prison- rate so high that it can kiss Jesus on the cheek, my good American tax payer’s have to be scratching their heads as well, wondering “what in the world is really going on inside of these walls?” I’ll tell you exactly what’s going on, and my enlightenment came to the surface one lazy afternoon while I was reading the business section of the USA Today… Corporate Corrections of America (CCA) which now operates under the name of “CoreCivic” has now become an open public trade stock with inmates being their featured trade stock… Corrections has become a public business with investors! I first started doing prison time back in the 90’s when I was just a young kid, and back then there were tons of vocational trades such as Auto mechanics, heating and cooling ventilation, Welding, Barber school, Carpentry, Gardening, Vocational Food Service, gave inmates skills to be productive in their communities when released back into society. Tax payer’s were investing into training and correcting the criminally lower class to be apart of the growth and workforce of their town or city, and to take pride in being certified in having a skilled hand, instead of being destructive. These vocational opportunities were far from the “all purpose” cure for inmates returning to prison, but what these trades did was give a leaping head-start to every man who was sincerely dedicated to changing his life, and to him who truly understood the overall good of a community. As I look around now inside these prison walls and how it is operating, it’s a sad sight for even a career criminal as myself… I look around and I see nothing but children in here, ages varying from 25 all the way down to 17. Most of them have the rest of their natural life to do in prison, and even if they could find their way to the Law Library, I bet they couldn’t distinguish a Law book from a hardback fictional novel… It’s sad!... When you talk about reality with them, and about them never being able to go home you can instantly see the fear in their eyes. The words that come out of their mouth may seem confident, but the eyes always tell what worries the soul. But as I put the focus back on the Department of so-called Corrections, right now in 2018 you will be lucky if you can find just one of these vocational trades in your prison… That’s right, they took all of the vocational trades out of the prisons and are now releasing inmates back into our developed society more bitter, and still unskilled as when they first entered… Where is the correcting, Mr. Corrections!?! The real question is… If the Department of Corrections are not using our good American tax dollar for, not only housing, but also educating and bettering our inmates, then what is the money being used for? For stock investments of CoreCivic? I can tell you right now that the fundamental operation of the prison’s are entirely carried out by us Prisoner’s, so we now that that’s not where the money is being used… We do all of the plumbing and electrical work… We wash our own laundry… We tend to the prison grounds all year long… And we cook, and serve, us from food that we prepare from scratch recipes… So where does all the money go? Our meal trays are suppose to total up to $1.75 per meal, but we rarely see a meal costing over .80₵… Please tell where all of this extra money is going? The least you can do is educate us, Mr. Corrections. There is this invisible fund that Administration has created called “the inmate benefit fund” which is suppose to be a collection of all the disciplinary fines, and things of that nature, and this fund is suppose to be used to supply us inmates with needful things… Several times I have written out a proposal to this Warden of the prison to use this invisible inmate fund to bring back the vocational programs but haven’t received any responses. But not all of my findings of prison are depressing…one thing I find interesting in the Kansas prison system is this private prison program that allows inmates the opportunity to work a minimum wage job while in prison. What this program provides is actual, on the job training, and with this minimum wage income it allows the inmate to pay back things such as child support credited to his children, court cost, and all other debts to society. This program also allows the inmate to send money home (after saving so much) to help pay bills and school cost and help secure his role back as a father. It also helps the inmate pay for family transcription and phone cost so that he can remain in close contact with his loved ones. With a percentage of his income the inmate pays for his own room and board at the prison facility, and since it’s minimum wage the inmate also pays State and Federal taxes. With this program the inmate is actually paying towards his own prison stay freeing up tax dollars to be used else where. This minimum wage program for prisoners should be considered in all states, nation wide, and made available to majority inmates. This way, instead looking at the inmates as a tax burden, why not give us opportunities to become wage earners and tax payer’s ourselves so that we could not only work on becoming debt free to society, but we could still help support our families and minimize the child -cash assistance- welfare program, and step back into society with money saved up in our account. If the so-called Department of corrections refuses to no longer educate their inmates so that they can be productive once released, then what better program then to allow a man to pay back his debt to society, contribute in paying taxes, pay for room and board to cover his own prison stay, and still be able to help financially support his family… I mean, since it’s all about the money and capitalism, and you no longer want to educate us, the least you could do is allow us to work for our corrections, Mr. Secretary of so-called Corrections.. Do consider! Zab Real!
