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Our Gated Community (Part I of NC Prison Industrial Complex) By Ravôn Derring; May 18, 2020 Do you live in a gated community? Maybe on an estate named "The Oaks", in a community called "Jewel in the Woods". Your community has a digitally designed gold course; a large lake; with several small ponds interspersed among the vast acreage. Maybe an extravagant Community Center, Church, and Restaurant. The community is located close enough to civilization to be convenient, yet far enough away to secluded, private. Ahhh...this is the good life... Let me tell you about my gated community. I live on an estate called Maury. It has a digitally designed security system, roving guards, and all of the amenities; uniforms, three prepared meals a day, assisted living (whether you want it or not), and even an in-house health care system. It also has schools, religious centers, and a recreational area. This community is snugly nestled in a wooded acreage. All manners of wild life are visible from the areas of recreation. Ohhh...this life is not so good. In fact, it is not good at awwll!! See, my gated community is a "prison industrial complex", under the guise of the North Carolina Department of Public Safety. Take a moment to absorb this title.... Public Safety. Really? Is this prison facility (complex) actually keeping the public safe? I beg to differ, and, in the following pages, I intend to show you that this system of incarceration is most definitely, not seeking the interests of "Public Safety". Page 1 of 6 Almost every large corporation or industry has a "Mission Statement". This generally appears in the prospectus of a business. In the most plainest of terms, the Mission Statement identifies the type of business, and its goal, i.e. "mission" to the public. The Dept. of Public Safety (prisons) is a subsidiary of the Public Safety entity that includes State Law Enforcement Agencies, Prisons, and other aspects of protecting the public. The prison system used to be called the NC Dept. of Corrections. Why the incorporation of these individual entities? In the private industry sector, mergers generally take place to promote economy. This is a business transaction, not a safety transaction. But, surely a more economic "Dept. of Public Safety" increases the safety of the public, right? Wrong!!! Tentatively, this should be the case, and, inarguably, some State functions have improved, but are these improvements contributing to a safer Public? I would contend, only marginally. I would concede the the state's highways are probably safer, due to more vehicles, State Troopers, state of the art equipment, etc.... Unfortunately, for the public, the majority of crime does not take place in the highway venue, but in the cities, towns, and counties of the state. So the only real way that this incorporation of the prison system, into the NC Dept. of Public Safety, could improve the public's safety, is by the way the prison system prevents crime by developing programs and strategies to inhibit recidivism, while encouraging rehabilitation. Just the opposite is happening. The NC Dept. of "Public Safety" should be renamed the "NC Dept. of 'Public Endangerment'". This vile system creates more problems than it resolves; promotes gang-related activity; and promotes advanced criminal enterprise. Page 2 of 6 Problems - Problems Most crimes are, purportedly committed by "minority caste" males, largely of the "African-American" persuasion. Most modern crimes are somehow drug-related and/or drug-motivated. Many troubled youths drop out of school to enter the profitable drug business. Other troubled youths drop out of school due to drug abuse. Even more significant is the fact that most of these youths are the product of drug-selling/drug-using/drug-abusing parents. Many of them have close relatives in, or previously in the prison system. This is what they know. Since the prison does little to nothing to address this societal demograph, a vicious cycle of criminal recidivism and recruiting has manifested. Now, consider the economic infrastructure of "our Gated Community". We have an "Incentive Wage" that pays 40 cents, 70 cents, or $1.00 a day. Are you kidding me?!?! Am I kidding you?!? Alas, I am not. This "Incentive Wage" is a profound factor that contributes to "advanced criminal enterprise". The 40 cent incentive wage has been around forever. How long? I know for a fact that it was in place over "thirty" years ago, as weas the 70 cents and $1.00 a day wages. What kind of "Incentive" is this? It is an incentive to develop an alternate means of revenue. So, let's consider a person in prison for robbery. If societal pressures encouraged this person to commit robberies, just think what the Incentive Wage will do? How about drugs? If drugs are a lucrative profession in society, just imagine the demand in the prison system. How does the NCDPS effect this? Their Incentive Wage encourages convicted criminals to improve and fine-tune their skills, to make big bucks!!! Incentive Wage? It sure is!!! Page 3 of 6 Hail, Hail, the Gang-Gang-Gang's All Here!!! Is gunpowder dangerous? How about gasoline? What would you think about a chain smoking truck driver, on methamphetamines, pulling a load of these two chemicals combined, through a densely urban area. Hell... we may as well add 6-8 barrels of white phosphorus, you know...just to make things interesting. Well, stop right here, go back and read page three again. Back already? Okay, add to the factors, on page three, the influence of rival gangs, all vying for control of a lucrative drug/tobacco (yes, since removing the tobacco from the prison system, a pack of Newport 100's can bring $200.00, no joke) enterprise. So we don't just have individual killers, robbers, drug users/dealers/abusers. We have organizations of these criminal mindsets. Again, just for a few giggles, add intoxication, gangster rap, and on increasing female corrections officer staff and "Wa la!" instant chaos! Although I have made a parody out of these circumstances, the reality is diabolical. Young men are compelled to join gangs for survival/protection. The violence has become so prevalent that many close-custody (somewhere between maximum and medium) facilities are on some manner of "Lockdown/Controlled Movement". And, despite this heightened security, Maury has experienced two prison murders in less than sixty days, along with a multitude of assaults and stabbings. Yes, "our Gated Community" is a hotbed of myriad violence. One would think that with all of the incorporating and restructuring, North Carolina would have the safest, state of the art facilities in the country. Yeah...,right!!! The money isn't being spent on rehabilitative measures. The lion's share of this revenue Page 4 of 6 is going into salary increase for "Top Tier" NCDPS officials. The purchase of equipment to replace older equipment, that was working just fine. But spending on the primary aspect of "Public Safety", "Recidivism", not happening. I Dun Got Me N Ejumacashon! So how many of our communities' young men received a G.E.D. or educational degree before being released (or should I say "unleashed") into society. I guarantee that it is not as many as those who were released without furthering their education. Yet the majority of those released without advancing their formal education have certainly increased their proficiency in advanced criminal enterprise. Troubled young youth without viable societal options, coming to prison, pressured to join a gang, and returning to the public an experienced criminal gangbanger with a grudge and a gleam in their eyes. This is what the North Carolina Department of Public Endangerment is developing. Hardened young men (and women) with a profound disdain for authority, the legal system, and the society, as a whole; being bred for violence and criminal avarice; being released into communities all across the State/Nation? Wow!!! Please allow me a bit of rhetoric. If the government heard of a dog kennel breeding and training pitbulls, rottweilers, german shepherds, and dobermans to attack any living creature, that they come in contact with. Then, after scarcely feeding these animals, they were released into metropolitan areas, by the thousands; would the government poor increasing revenue into such an evil enterprise? In a manner of speaking, this is exactly what's Page 5 of 6 taking place in North Carolina, as well as other states, in this great country of ours. And guess what...? This is but a tip of the proverbial iceberg. - Author's Note - There are many subjects that I have broached, and intend to broach, that I have not provided exact demographic documentation nor authentication. Please understand that this is not my purpose. Consider my "Mission Statement" a quest to 1) inform the public about what's really going on behind closed doors, and 2) hopefully encouraged someone, somewhere, to vigorously attack these issues I have raised. Oh, and I must disclaim any judgements of the men and women incarcerated across the nation. We have already been judged, corraled, and exposed to all manners of vile atrocities. For better or for worse, we are just trying to make the best of an untenable situation. I assert that "we", as a collective prison population, "are not" the NC Dept. of Public Endangerment. We are its denizens. For we are "endangered", while incarcerated, as well as upon our release into society. I hope you enjoyed this first installment of "NC Prison Industrial Complex" and pray that you will welcome Part II WTF!!! No..., not an expletive Thankyou, Ravôn Derring Page 6 of 6
