Simple Solutions
By Jay Goodman
Here we are in the 21stcentury, and the rest of the country is imputing new technology into their prison systems. This helps prisoners and their family members to stay in touch easier. Other states understand that they can use this modern day technology for their benefit as well. They have come to realize that a major part of an inmates rehabilitation is skills and cognitive training. By having computer systems set up in their prisons they can educate many more individuals at a time versus having to hire for dozens of prisons, or in Texas' case, hundreds. Using this modern technology would save a lot of money and help educate hundreds or thousands more prisoners. Most of the other states have learned that by allowing steady contact with family members, inmates will keep the family unit intact and helps these men and women with their rehabilitation. Of course the last thing that Texas wants is a bunch of rehabilitated prisoners. The thought of that I'm sure both scares and infuriates them.
In my opinion, if the Texas prison system was allowed to go back into the days of turnkeys they would. It would be so much easier to just beat or murder inmates who fail to cooperate with the system. Their actions today still reflect the persona of a slave master. Anything they can do to keep this system in the past they will do. Chaos amongst the prisoners is one of the best examples. There are 84 inmates in each cell block. In our dayrooms there are two televisions, usually one is for sports and the other for movies or television programs. There are six benches in front of each t.v. Each bench seats three people, so that's eighteen inmates per t.v. Well, if a good show comes on or a big game, only eighteen can sit down. This will, of course, cause a lot of frustration and conflict over who gets to sit down on the benches.
This has gone on for decades and decades throughout the whole prison system. This one issue has caused more fights, stabbings, riots and deaths than almost all other issues combined. Now, you would think that after all of these problems and deaths, someone inside the prison system would step up and put an end to this madness. You would think, right? The Puppetmasters do not want to put an end to this, they want us to fight, riot and kill each other. They might say that this is crazy. But, allow me to explain such a simple solution to this problem. I'm sure even a child could understand the logic behind this. How about removing the benches and eight tables that I forgot to mention before that only seats four people each. Now, replace them with hard plastic chairs for each individual inmate. When they go to the dayroom, they just take their own chair with them, and guess what? Everyone has a seat. Instead of individual tables, they can use long tables to seat a multitude of inmates, plenty of room for everyone. Let me enlighten all of you a little further with this simple solution.
The unit that I am currently at has a furniture factory, the tables and chairs I am talking about could be manufactured right here. There are other furniture factories all over the state in different prison units. Now the question is why wouldn't they use a little common sense and do this? I mean it could stop a lot of violence that goes on inside these penitentiaries. The Puppetmasters do not want to stop it. They want us to fight, they want us to hate, and they want us to kill each other. It's all part of their plan to grow hateful, violent individuals that are less likely to become rehabilitated, their number one goal. Why would any prison system not want to institute this idea into their building plans? This state never wants to solve anything reasonably, even if the solution is so simple. As I wrote in some of my earlier chapters, the solution to stopping a great deal of gang-affiliated deaths and riots could have been solved by easily identifying gang members. Most of whom advertised their affiliation on their own bodies through tattoos. By separating them from the other gang members, who would be left to fight with? Most of the other prison systems in this country have wisened up and used several of these simple solutions to great benefit.
Texas talks a tough game. They have implemented a few programs into the system to help pull the wool over the eyes of some of the higher officials. This makes it appear that they are really trying to move into the future somewhat in rehabilitation and training. But, the truth be told, they have never left the frame of mind from the past. They've only changed what they could get away with the bare minimum not because they wanted to, but because they had to. And, I might add it took lawsuits, federal judges, and many other people to fight their hearts out to get us where we are today. It really is still out of control on how far behind the Texas prison system is compared to the rest of the country. Their thinking does not change and it seems impossible for them to realize that hey, it's the 21stcentury.
We are not slaves, we are human beings. I understand that we may have done some things in the past not in accord to respectful citizens, and I realize a few that are in here continue to follow that same path. That does not justify that the few make up the whole. Most of us are not scumbags. If you read that several of the employees here are involved in various crimes within the institution, does that still justify the whole of them as criminals also? It is so easy for our society to look upon the masses as wretched, instead of singling out the few who are truly scum, but we must not fall into that type of thinking by judging the whole. It is very plain to see all of the problems within the Texas prison system, and it is very easy for someone to step up to the plate and say, "Hey this is enough! Let's put an end to this madness." People fighting over seats and tables is insane, especially with there being such a simple solution.
Another big issue that has plagued this prison system is housing men together that do not get along accordingly. It is bad enough having to deal with all of the idiots in here that do not want to change positively throughout the day. Now, at the end of the day, you are forced to being locked in a cage with one of these same individuals, this inevitably causes, some serious problems between the inmates. This is another one of the Puppetmasters tools to cause serious conflict amongst its inhabitants. This has caused many men and women to lose their lives over the decades. This issue along with the seating situation proves how cunning the Puppetmasters can be in their reign of tyranny. Fully aware of the outcome is why they continue to allow these issues to persist. All of this causes conflict, chaos, and turmoil inside these walls. It discourages prosperity and ambition for positive change within a person.
As crazy as it all may sound, it happens on a daily basis. At the unit I am currently at, inmates are constantly shuffled around from cell to cell, building to building. Let's say you have been in a cell for a few months or so and you and the other inmate have a mutual respect for one another. Both of you get along great. One day out of nowhere the CO comes in and says that one or both of you will be moving to another cell. Now, one or both of you are placed in housing with some damned idiot. The problems begin. Maybe it's drugs, alcohol, or even being placed with a homosexual inmate. One minute your comfortable and making progress with something positive, the next your in lockup for your cellie manufacturing alcohol, smoking dope, or fighting with them for a long list of various reasons. Where now, does that leave you? More time added on to your sentence, a loss of parole, visits, and in some cases, one of you could lose your life. I've even seen two great cellies split up on account of two other knuckleheads fighting and switching them around. What sense does that make? You have taken a good situation and made it bad.
Everything that happens around here is kept on file in the administration building. They knew very well how inmates get along being cellies. It seems the longer you go without any kind of problems in housing, the quicker they will move you around to ensure the chaos. In other prison systems across the country, the officials want harmony amongst its inmates, they strive to put safety first. Unlike Texas who put greed, violence, and hatred first. Other systems keep two inmates together who are compatible. Why not? This seems to cut down on rapes, violence, and murders. This unit here will take and rearrange entire cell blocks for no reason at all. Why would anyone do something so foolish? Because the Puppetmasters see harmony. The last thing they want is peace amongst its prisoners.
I know several men in here that are so miserable they cause trouble everywhere they go. They have been in fight after fight with almost every cellie the have been housed with. Instead of moving them to another unit in isolation, they continue placing them with other inmates who really never get into any trouble at all. It's all part of the plan to cause as much conflict and turmoil as possible. They understand that if the prisoners as a whole are upset and aggravated, the possibility of positivity is thrown right out the window. I couldn't begin to understand this fourteen years ago, why they would want to cause so many problems within the system. I have asked a few of the guards I thought may have a little sense why the prisons are run this way. I was told that the officials in control do not believe in rehabilitation, they believe in punishment. Through the years I have seen first hand that everything that guard said to me is true. It is sad to know that so many inmates could sincerely be rehabilitated given the opportunity, but the Puppetmasters' dream is to keep the prisons full and keep their pockets full. They want to destroy everyone who enters these fences and keep them here for the rest of their lives. This is the 21stcentury of the Texas prison system.
