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Larry Palomares ASPC-Yuma-Dakota P.O. Box 8909 San Luis AZ 85349 American Prison Writing Archive (A.P.W.A.), c/o Hamilton College 198 College Hill Road, Clinton, NY 13323-1218 Re: Incarceration Experience Date: Feb 4 2020 Allow me to introduce myself my names is Larry Palomares. I started this journey June 9, 2009. It is Feb, 4 2020, and I have 4 years remaining on a 14-16 year sentence to the Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Re-entry. (A.D.C.R.R.) This add requests non-fiction essays of testimony and or experience of the incarcerated. To me, as I read this request, I understand, and realise that the public could never fully grasp the reality of incarceration and what prisoners are subjected to. However, despite my doubt, I will attempt to put my life behind the walls on paper. A.D.C.R.R., this acronym and agency of the state of Arizona derives its prerogative on the publics misconception that they are correcting & rehabilitating inmates to reenter them into society. However, thats simply not true, and if it were, I would be the first to praise them along with the public. The reality is officers of this agency do not know they are under contract with the state, and are required by contractual agreement to abide by policies and guidelines. Officers do not understand they have definite legal duties and do not understand constitutional rights. They do not understand arbitrary and capricious behavior or that their purpose is to rehabilitate prisoners. They are not preparing all prisoners for release and helping them to lead pro-social, ethical and productive lives as the A.D.C.R.R. and governor sell. No, contrary to the publics belief, they inflict upon us detriment, via my free reign, and upon repetiveness and dominancy in the system, which allow the incorporeal idea of, we, the one percenters, reign supreme to take fruition and infect, like the most indomitable virus, all prisoners. Again, the reality is, although I am sealed away these clocks don't stop, and if I am determined enough, I will have a smart phone, and have sex during visit and drugs are a whisper away, and there is nothing this place could take from me that is more costly than what I have already lost, and there is nothing this institution offers that I care to lose. But it doesn't need to be this way. The prisoners I have met during my incarceration could bring productive programs to communities and build empires of rightousness from dirt. Leaders of organized syndicates instead of orchestrating murders through sophisticated coding or money laundering hundreds of thousands of dollars they could leave positive impressions in society and change future generations to come. They, me, are the solutions to societies shortcomings. But how are we to perceive this in ourselves when rarely anyone shows belief in us and so we never care to believe in us ourself and how are we to discover this when our eyes are blinded by walls and we are secluded to perpetual violence. The answer is we do not. Unless we make extra ordinary leaps over obstacles and then fall upon chance are we able to defeat this entanglement. And even then only one soul was spared damnation...This is how I came to the idea that only through those previously damned could those damaged from neglect be healed with lasting results, and I eventually answered the question life designed for me. "Who else would really understand what help the ill require to break through their sickness then those previously diseased. I started my incarceration June 9, 2009. In March 2010 I was sentenced as an adult to 5 years in A.D.C., and while incarcerated I was indicted and sentenced to an additional 12.5 years. The truth is I was a child when I committed these offenses I am in prison for, and what I did, I did not know was wrong. I, as a juvenile, did not understand individual interests, public interests, and social interests or rights in Personam or rights in Rem. I did not know what relative duties, or absolute duties were, and it was never explained to me that I owed it to the public not to commit these offense, or that it was my duty of keeping the peace, order and well being of the community. Even prior to being charged as an adult, while in the eyes of the law I was still in infancy, there was no educational programs available, or cognitive behavior therapy treatment, and it wasn't explained that these tools, if available, could change my future. Instead I was offered probation to get out of juvy charges, and given a officer who labeled me criminogenic, and did not care about who I was. I eventually arrived to the A.D.J.C., Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections where I quickly learned I was either going to be the wolf or sheep. But I am not going to get into that. At 17 I was sent to Rincon minors where I was segregated by my race, and at 18 I was taken to Santa Rita unit where immediately after I arrived Corrections Officers segregated me to my race, and I was interrogated because I was a Pima. Thus being introduced to the "Secure Threat Group" "Warrior Society", a label derived from ancestral history where those considered warriors belonged to the tribes (whether Pima, Apache, Cheyenne, Oine, etc...) Warrior Society or Group. The officer informed me after my arrival and interrogation that I was "Warrior Society" because I had a smudged cultural insignia "Pima" on my wrist and a N.P., Native Pride on my forearm. I would later have both covered with more cultural symbols. Had I known this officer just violated my constitutional right to be free from persecution, and labeled a gang member because of immutable traits, and cultural identity then I would have been upset. However, I did not know that I was just labeled a "suspect affiliation" of the "Secure Threat Group Warrior Society", and given the reputation of murderer, and money launderer and drug dealer. Instead I embraced this classification because in my culture to be acknowledge as a member of the ancestral idea "Warrior Society" is a great honor, and you are considered a influential member of the tribal community and are deeply respected. Years passed with this tag, and I ended up spending from September 2011 to May of 2018 in a maximum custody unit as a result of this tag, and in November 2018 I was finally released to a close custody yard. But I am not upset because I now have a goal in life, and although I experienced my soul solidify and flake away over the years the truth is I am content and happy with who Ive become because the peice of my soul that was returned to me is worth more than anything in existence, and believe this or not but up until a few weeks ago I was attempting to be the next drug kingpin and taking advantage of addicts, and running an organization of unsavory substance, allegedly, and it all changed because of 2 books in a para-legal program changed my perception of life, and showed me why the things I did were wrong and why I have a responsibility to the public. The truth is, if you really want to help the incarcerated, offer educational treatment because we don't need to be rehabilitated we need nourishment that will result in growth. Larry Palomares, [Shashani Namkam?]
