I found out that I had an autism spectrum disorder, among others, before my incarceration in 2019. From then til now, I have received very little help. The so-called help I’ve received from then til now amounts to seldom meetings with the mental health staff, a few printed pieces of paper with basic coping techniques, and little knowledge pertaining to my autism and other disorders. This overall isn’t particularly helpful in the long run.
This lack of care happened at Rappahannock Regional Jail, and here at Haynesville Correctional Center. To plainly put things, my conditions continue to worsen during my confinement due to the bad environment, no rehabilitation, and poor services beyond reason, etc. I’ve requested programs to be started or other possible routes of approach to help others and myself. They have been shut down, or I have been told they don’t exist. Don’t get me wrong, a few programs exist, but are typically peer-based, which help those they allegedly help. However, in the grand scheme of things, I’m not one of them. Quite a few techniques they use I’ve already tried, so there’s that. I tend to feel as if I’m too much for the staff to handle. Then again, the client-to-psychiatric ratio is way out of balance. They could have their hands tied, may not truly care about the patient, or such.
Mental health staff here at Haynesville have tendency, in my experience as well as others, to try to use medications as a fix-all. This is crazy. Not only do you have a bad environment naturally, which is known to affect one negatively, but once you add medication there [it] may help, but more likely worsen the issue, especially if not taken as prescribed. Medical staff tend to be slow, purposefully mess with people and such, in regards to medications. It is like someone lighting a fuse to a bomb blindfolded, not knowing when it will explode. But if you do explode, now it’s allegedly proof that you should be locked up. One is put in a predicament where they lose pretty much no matter what. They’re set up for destruction.
Environmental studies are consistently being done, big to small scale, and when I was in college, I wrote a paper on environmental impacts that was semi-broad-reaching. Many negative effects were; too much light, overcrowding, sanitation, too much noise, and such, and etc., which incarcerated people deal with daily, or at least mostly. Inmates are being mentally harmed day in and out, which transfers to physical effects. Keep in mind, I haven’t included staff that harass, beat, and do countless other things to incarcerated individuals that much of society’s population knows, doesn’t know, or may not even care about. These individuals seem to typically be protected, and rarely if ever, ousted or blacklisted from working for DOC in another fashion. They’re usually moved and hidden away at other facilities or such till the situation is forgotten slowly. Then they creep back into the mix, repeat their action, or do worse.
Prisons aren’t meant to be pleasant, but they should be relatively humane and promote actual rehabilitation. As far as I’ve experienced, prison is meant to be a trap, and people are meant to suffer, however possible. They’re set up for whoever makes money on them to keep doing so, as well as to promote their higher recidivism. So, next time prison reform acts come up, you may want to decide to think about what will happen and who it may benefit. It is known that Virginia DOC’s prisons budgets tend to climb higher and higher into the millions or billions. How much money do you think you may, as a taxpayer, put towards these prisons and such items and staff? Or possibly have the money pocketed by those in charge? Who watches them anyway? Who lets it slide and gets a cut? What medical or other things are done in the name of inmates welfare, but disappears, etc.?
I believe American prisons need actual, legitimate ways that they benefit society, or if not, a complete abolishment of them. Prisons in this country fail its people, cause generation, generational problems, and a slew of other stuff. What are their benefits, short-term or long-term? And who does it actually, truly benefit? If a water treatment plant fails, or food production is too slow, not enough jobs for the people, etc., whose fault is it? I’d like to think it’s society’s fault, whether indirectly or directly. Those with the reins, leading in many areas, in my opinion, are doing a piss-poor job. But, hey, I don’t know the full scope, scale, scope of the problem. Now think about how much money is spent towards prison, and how that could have better uses. Try and do some research on the humanitarian effects of prisons from credible sources. As a society, do we not have the ability to peacefully remove, or forcefully remove, those in power, which I believe is stated in the Declaration of Independence? Can’t the United States learn better methods from other countries? Or are the American people’s hearts blackening or turning hard? America is a first world country, yet it continues to fall and fail in many ways.
As I’ve pondered life during my incarceration, I’ve come to an understanding that society isn’t much different than prison, at least United States society. For the United States society, one is like a prisoner, in some way. As citizens, one is, in a sense, a “good inmate” that causes no problem. Once a crime is already committed, then, guilty or not, you very well become the “problem inmate,” just or not. If you have the right connections, you might be fine. If you don’t, you are screwed. Lastly, I believe a festering boil continues to spread in its many multifaceted ways across all of America, whether greed, hate, racism, or such. How do we purify these so as a country, we can not only understand and help each other more, but are capable of having a better future for not only ourselves, but, if we choose, our children?
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
