Hey, this is Comrade Pitt, Peter Kamal Makuria. I’m calling in from Jessup Correctional Institution in the state of Maryland. So, this piece, I decided to name it “We’re Not The Same” because, well, you’ll get it once you hear my commentary.
So, I am in a prison where it’s mostly, pretty much all Black staff. From the warden, the warden is Black, the assistant warden is Black, the chief security is Black, the major, the captains, lieutenants, on down to regular COs. Pretty much all Black, and most of the officers are pretty much of African descent. Very few of them are actually from this country. But I’m an immigrant too. So, why am I calling Prison Radio talking about other immigrants? Well, because we’re not the same. I’m an immigrant. I was born in Kenya,and, you know, because I was born in Kenya, I can relate to, I can relate to a lot of these, you know, people that work at this prison because they come from the same places that I come from. They’re immigrants, so, I can relate to them in terms of that. I understand, you know, immigrants coming to America, working hard and sending money back home to take care of their families, take care of business, whatever they have going. That’s pretty much what a lot of immigrants tend to do when they come to this country, work, send money back home, take care of things back home, etc.
So, here I am at a prison where I have, literally, in a matter of months, you know, from when I first got here, literally, me and some of some of the guys that I used to work with, like, we would literally take bets outside, and we would bet like, all right, when the new officers are coming in, we would bet, “I bet you that one’s not going to last. I bet you that one’s going to last for X amount of time. I bet you that one- they’re not going to come here tomorrow.” And a lot of times we were right. Most of them that we did bet would last, lasted. Most of them that we, that we bet did not last, didn’t last. And most of them that we assumed will be back tomorrow, they came back. So, most of the time, we are right on point where we make certain judgments about certain officers when they come in. And you know, so, literally, you can see people change in a matter of– literally in a matter of months, from the moment that they start working here. You can kind of like see, see them just gradually becoming different people. See, prisons don’t just affect the incarcerated people alone. No, prison affects everybody. The incarcerated, as well as those who are keeping the incarcerated incarcerated.
Yeah, nobody is unaffected when it comes to this prison thing. So, anyway, one of the guys, one of my peers was asking me, “Man, I want to see how you do it man, you literally, man, you argue every single day with these officers, man. And they’re Africans, man, you’re supposed to be having an easy time, man, because y’all from the same area.” I said, “Well, that’s the thing. Yes, they’re immigrants. I’m an immigrant. But that’s pretty much where the comparison stops, because these so-called immigrants come from, you know, these countries.” And to me, it helped me understand why Africa is so far left behind. Because of a certain type of mindset, an oppressive type of mindset. A mindset that only seems to care about me and mine. Me, my people, me, my tribe. That’s it. That’s all they care about. So, with that kind of mindset, I can see why Africa has been so far left behind, and I can see why it’s so easy for other countries to just go to Africa and pretty much just, you know, take the wealth that has accumulated. None of this is surprising to me. You know, but when I see, you know, an oppressed people take on the role of an oppressor, yeah, that tends to be quite disturbing. And then when you see how power corrupts people who have never been in such a position before, yeah, that’s bothering too, but it’s also a testament of how nobody is unaffected when it comes to this prison thing.
But you know, I will be talking more about this, about this whole immigrant officers. I will definitely be talking about this because, yeah, as you would imagine, even though they’re Africans, guess what? The same way that I held fire to those white people (inaudible) is the same way that I will hold fire to them when they are out of order. So, we’ll talk more about that as we go along. And I’m definitely glad to be back in communication, and I’m definitely glad to be back contributing to the podcast, and I look forward to it. All right? My name is Peter. I look forward to contributing some more. You guys have an awesome rest of the day. And yeah, look forward to contributing.
These commentaries are recorded by Prison Radio.
