The Public Doesn’t Want Us To Have It

By Jay Goodman

I have heard over and over again, when it comes to us getting something in prison, how the public doesn’t want the prisoners to have it. I have listened to this debate through the years, and wondered if the people that say this are lying to us, or if the public is misinformed about how we live inside the Texas prison system. I have contemplated this for many years, and decided it’s a little of both. One thing I do know for certain is, the Puppetmasters ability to lie, conceive, and manipulate the public as well as the guards, and public officials. There is an old saying that goes, “everything isn’t always what it seems to be”.

As the years have past I’ve tried to consider both sides of the coin, the view point of the public, and the view point of the prisoners. And the reason I have never tried to consider the viewpoint of the people running this insane prison system is, I know they are nothing but criminals themselves.

I have lived in their world for almost 15 years, and I know their only goal is to keep all of the hundred plus prisons full to capacity, and enslave every single man and woman, for the rest of their lives. They care nothing about the prisoners or the public. So, their opinion means nothing to me. But, the publics opinion on the other hand does. I can understand if you have been victims of violent crimes, like assault, or rape. I do understand these individual’s frustration and anger. I have children and grandchildren myself, and the thought of somebody hurting them would also make me angry. Of course, if someone we love is hurt, our first reaction is anger, and we want what we hear from the courts-justice.

While I do. believe that criminals have to answer for their crimes, I have said all through my book, there is a need for prisons. But, at some point everyone has to step back for a moment and look at things realistically. Realistically, the men and women in prison are going to answer for their crimes. If a person goes to prison for 5, 10, or 20 years or longer, they will suffer. Trust me, just the loss of the 15 years I’ve already done, hurts. Watching my little girl grow up without me, watching my brother, Father, and Mother die. Nobody can step inside these prisons and lose all these years and not suffer. If a victim of a crime believes for a moment, that we are in here having fun, their wrong.

Prisons in general, are lonely places, and we will face many obstacles during our incarceration. Most prisoners will get into fights. I have been in several riots, I’ve seen people get beat up, I’ve seen people murdered and I have seen people kill themselves. I have seen guards beat prisoners that were blind, beat elderly handicapped inmates, plant drugs, write false reports, steal from us, my God, the list goes on and on. And I’m sure there are people who will say, “good, that’s what they get”. And because I try hard to look at both sides of the coin, I will say I respect how you feel. But now, I would like for everyone who feels this way to think about this. How would you feel if it was one of your children? How would you feel if it was someone in your family that you love? Remember, it’s always easy to sit on the side and be angry, or to not be forgiving. Because, if it was one of your children in here being mistreated, believe me, you-would feel very differently. I have heard people say, my children are good kids, they would never get into trouble. At these people I have to shake my head at their ignorance. Or they are living in a fantasy world. Prisons across this country are filled with good people, who did one stupid thing. And prisons, all prisons, have people in them that are innocent. If you look at the, “USA Today”, newspaper, you will read an article on Dallas, from 2001 until 2011, there were 30 people who were found to be innocent. That’s just one city. Now, what if it were yourselves in here, howm would you want to be treated?

Here is something else that needs to be looked at. I am just guessing out loud here, but, I believe around 80 to 90 percent of all prisoners in Texas will go home someday. What kind of people do you want to be released back into society? Because, let me show you what the Texas Department of Criminal Justice wants. They understand what happens to people that are thrown into a system like I’ve described throughout my book. A system where a person will not be taught a lesson, it’s a system built by the Puppetmasters to destroy a person mentally, and emotionally. From the moment a person hits a unit in the Texas prison system he will have to face many challenges, both from his fellow prisoners, and especially from the staff. Now, since I’ve been here for almost 15 years and have seen changes inside the Texas prisons such as phones, I first got to prison there were no phones, in fact my first four years there weren’t any. I knew that all of the other states in the U.S. had phones, so prisoners could communicate with their families. WhenI asked why we didn’t have them, people would tell me, the public doesn’t want us to have them. I thought to myself, that was odd why wouldn’t the public want us to speak with our children, or our Mom, and Dad’s? Especially, since our whole country, has phones in their prison system. Well, what I eventually found out through someone was this. The Puppetmasters had been planting the idea, that prisoners would use the phones for criminal activity, or that prisoners would be calling their victims. Which is naturally stupid, because every number we call has to be registered, meaning, all of our numbers have been pre-approved. Of course, the real reason Texas did not want us to have phones was, to keep us from contacting our families when they were mistreating us. Plus, the long-term effects it would have on prisoners not being able to talk to our loved ones for years, or decades. Remember, part of their goal is to institutionalize us, to keep us in their slave industry for the rest of our lives. Having phones hasn’t stopped our time, it hasn’t changed the fact that prisoners have lost years or decades of their lives. But, it has truly helped in our rehabilitation.

I have also been told that the reason we don’t have air conditioning is because, the public doesn’t want us to have it. And I am sure there are people who do believe we should not have it. But once again, I know it’s not so much the public, as it is TDCJ. For the public who believes we shouldn’t, I want you to think about this. Is having A/C going to stop our time? Is having A/C going to make things easier for us, or make us feel good after we’ve lost 10, 20, or more years of our lives? Is having A/C going to stop our suffering when we watch our children grow up, and we’ve realized how we can never get those years back? Is having A/C going to make us feel any better when they call us to the administration building and tell us our parents, or one of our children has died? I know from first-hand experience that having A/C is not going to stop us from suffering. But the one thing A/C will do is stop all of the prisoners from being cooked to death. I would pray that the people in the public would not want to see the men and women in here being killed. Many different organizations have fought to get us A/C. As I have written in the past chapters, the Texas prison system admitted to 23 deaths, because of the heat. So, as before, I believe it’s not so much the public as it is the Puppetmasters. But, even if the public doesn’t want us to have A/C, I believe it’s the leader’s job of our state to ensure our safety inside these prisons. Which is something they have failed to do. People who have been sent to prison have not lost their right to live. And our state Representatives, Senators, and Governor are aware of this, but have kept turning their heads to the problems of the Texas prison system.

While I understand, we may not be at the top of the Texas officials like list, we are still American citizens, who are human beings with families. A lot of people in here have also served in the military, and have fought in the wars. There are so many things the Texas prison system could do to help us communicate more with our families and loved one’s. Other states and the federal prison system allow their prisoners to send E-mail, that way inmates can communicate with their families on and off throughout the week. Texas only allows us to receive E-mail. Why won’t Texas allow us to send E-mail? Once again, it’s very simple to answer. Their sole goal is to institutionalize us, to break us mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. To take away our ability to think and grow. They understand when a man loses all hope he doesn’t care anymore. And when a man reaches that point they know he will forever be their slave.

I have also wondered why the Taxes prison system won’t allow inmates to have MP-3 players? Of course, other states and the federal prisons have had them for decades. Naturally I have asked, and was told, the public doesn’t want us to have it. I seriously doubt that the public has anything to do with it. I have even brought to their attention the fact that if Texas doesn’t want us to have music, which I don’t know why they wouldn’t, because we have radios. But, let’s just assume the thought of us having music upsets them. Ok, no music. How about allowing us MP-3 players for educational purposes? Look at all of the courses the prisoners could study in their calls. They say the average reading level of the Texas prisoners is 3rd grade. There are only so many prisoners that can go to school, because there are only 3 classrooms. But, if they allowed the MP-3 players, now thousands of inmates could be studying for their GED, college courses, religious courses, language courses, and tens of thousands of other courses. But of course, the very last thing the Puppetmasters ever want to do is start something that would educate their slaves.

They say, the. public doesn’t want us to have all these things. Ok, what about the thousands and thousands of people in the public who do want us to have these things? What’s wrong now cats got your tongue? It has nothing to do with the public, it is all about keeping us here. Remember, it’s the state Representatives, Senators, and Governor’s job to ensure we are kept safe and that we are rehabilitated.

You all should be ashamed of yourselves for allowing the Texas prison system to be run the way it has been. All of you are aware of the things I’ve written about but do nothing. My hope is that you will get off your asses, and get rid of these criminals that control these prisons. And make the necessary changes that will rehabilitate the Texas prisoners.