THE ROAD TO PRISON

THE ROAD TO PRISON
BUILDING A NEGATIVE CULTURE
Ike Griffin

U.S. Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics release December 7, 2009: the United States of America can count almost 2 million in its jails and prisons, and 5.1 million more under Community Corrections of the criminal-justice system, on probation or parole or awaiting trial. This is the highest number that any country on earth has ever achieved at any time in our known history. The United States not only holds the numerical record, but the highest percentage record as well. We are the incarceration capitol of the world! With four percent of the world’s population, the United States claims twenty-five percent of the world’s prisoners.

WHAT LED US HERE?

Over the past three decades, the prison population profile has changed from the archetypal gangster model once portrayed in cinema by Edward G. Robinson. In the first half of the twentieth century, most of those in prison were there for either crimes of passion, or for crimes committed in pursuit of riches; that is, gangsters. America was still largely a rural society, guided by Northern European mores. Gangsters, driven by greed, set aside family traditions and values in pursuit of a fast track to the American dream. Kidnapping, bank-robbing, high-jacking, extortion, confidence games, prostitution, gambling, bootlegging, were popular crimes for those in a hurry to “be somebody” in a competitive environment that admires and honors success.

The last half of the twentieth century brought rapid migration and transition from rural-based to urban-based society. Rather than building urban community, America opted for urban sprawl. Urban development moved toward bedroom communities with homes on the largest possible lots, leading to dependency upon the private automobile. Education was organized toward ethnically biased districts. This all contributed to further isolate individuals, families, ethnic groups and communities. Our institutions became a collection of ghettos representing various races, religions, ideologies and social mores. In such an environment ethnic gangs replaced parental guidance.

Today’s convict is younger, a school dropout, and comes to prison as a result of drug and alcohol use or commerce. Drugs and alcohol, however, are more symptom than source when related to the origins of criminal activity by individuals. Gangs, drugs and alcohol are vehicles rather than cause. Abuse and absentee fathers is the common link relating eighty to ninety percent of the incarcerated population. There are inmates who come from loving families, but they are rare. It is not so rare to find inmates with families that love them, but there is normally a family member from the past, now more than likely gone, who did the damage before departing the scene. Sometimes, the offending party is still in the family and in denial of any complicity, thus rendering problematic re-unification of the family.

Typically, today’s inmate was abused, physically or mentally, at a very young age, usually before the age of eight. Children seem to be able to cope with an abusive environment quite well. They learn to fend for themselves, hide during times of extreme tension in the family and appear during more relaxed times. They know when to be quiet and when to complain. As small children, they tend to mask their feelings and besides, they do not have an adults capacity for destruction. Abused children grow into puberty pretty well intact as civilized human beings. It is during puberty that the problems begin to surface.

Puberty is doubly hard on an abused kid. Their bodies tell them that they need intimate relationships with others and their experience tells them they can be hurt, that they cannot trust people in a close relationship. Tension between the need for intimate relationship and distrust of intimacy brings enough pain to the maturing individual that alcohol and drugs are sought as an escape from their experience. Concurrent with the self medication, anti-social behavior brings them into conflict with the criminal justice system.

HENRY’S STORY

Henry’s grandmother told me, “Every child deserves at least one good parent – Henry didn’t have even one.”

PAUL’S STORY

Paul, a young man accepted into Mensa International while still incarcerated, told me one night as we spoke of forgiveness, “I can forgive everyone but my father. That, I could never do.”

JAMES’ STORY

James said, “I had good family support! My grandmother tried hard to bring me up right. Mama worked and couldn’t get by very often – she always promised to come for birthdays and bring me a present, but she always called at the last minute and apologized. I didn’t know my dad, but Mama told me some things about him.”

JEREMY’S STORY

Jeremy left home at the age of ten after being repeatedly sodomized by his stepfather. He grew up on the streets, found a “sugar-daddy” who took him in but led him into drug delivery and male prostitution. After his first arrest, his older sister agreed to give him a home, but he had to sleep in the closet among the shoes and was threatened with expulsion if he didn’t remain quiet while his sister entertained her “boyfriends” in the bedroom. Tried as an adult, Jeremy was sent to a men’s prison at age fifteen. As a frail and attractive inmate, Jeremy was “used as a woman” in prison just as he had been in the free world. Now thirty-two years old and no longer frail, Jeremy has worked his way into influential jobs within the prison that protect him from abuse. He has adopted abstinence as his approach to sex in prison, the only viable option for a heterosexual.