Change (Chains)

By David Ray Martin

Change is the inevitable force that never loses momentum.  Passing through millenniums like the second-hand on a clock.  Unfazed.  Undeterred.  Having witnessed the rise and fall of countless civilizations.  Like stalks of corn in an uncertain ecosystem.  Continental drift.  Riches and political agendas shifting.  Each successive generation believing that they were the chosen ones:  smarter, omnipotent, cultivated… only to plateau amongst the ruins of dormancy.  Like a carton of spoiled milk that time simply neglects. 

Change is like rain falling.  It happens when conditions are most conducive.  Each person (as with all life) has his/her own internal barometer.  The key to positive change is to incorporate positive influence.  That’s where everything begins.  Unfortunately, too often we see examples of prisoners whose main source of stimuli is another prisoner.  Offering whatever mindset they currently possess.  Plants need sunlight.  People need sunlight.  Be ever vigilant that the mental fields you sow are fertile with constructive soil.

It’s ironic that, to a degree, much of what occurs (or doesn’t) in these prisons is dictated by people who neither live nor work here.  And since budget cuts directly affect every aspect of BOP’s operations, fewer beneficial programs are available for those prisoners who seek change.  Opening additional warehouse space does little to rejuvenate inventory.  What kind of environment are prisons providing?  Are the staff members being utilized in ways that encourage change in prisoners?  Or do progress, common sense, and future dividends get lost in red tape and fiscal agendas?

Are we to look at these human warehouses of dysfunction and depravity – cesspools of inept transgressions against humanity – and honestly, rationally, think the long years of condemnation will serve to produce anything beneficial?  Or are we just kernels of corn, withering away?

Sometimes I wonder does it even matter?  The answer is made emphatically clear when I observe and listen; transfixed, as severely mentally disturbed prisoners go about their normal daily activities.  Forgotten.  Victims of deliberate indifference.  With no medication.  No clinical supervision.  No concise forms of counseling or intervention available.  No one in the world to oversee any part of their degenerate psychosis.  Except the cold, uncaring electric eye of the camera. We Need Change. Not Chains!

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