We’re the barbarians. The mainstream media rarely broadcasts something so powerful it calls into question conventional narratives. But on April 3, CBS’ 60 Minutes ran a segment about how prisoners are treated in Germany, that did. The head of one of their state’s prison systems made two eye-opening statements.
The first: No, the punishment is being in prison. There is no other punishment. The prison industrial complex in the US is based on the bogus premise that endless punishment will result in better outcomes. The truth has always been that brutalizing people never results in better outcomes. It only succeeds in keeping prison cells full. The second: We believe that the lives of prisoners are as valuable as anyone’s life. Prisoners in this country know, based on our lived experience, that we are just things used to pad payrolls and elect demagogues. We know how little value our lives hold. German prisoners are not treated as things, but as human beings, and in the 60 Minutes report, it was obvious those words are backed up with actions and results.
German prisoners are much less likely to re-offend after release. The next day on the yard, I was talking with a group of my fellow prisoners, all sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. One said, “You think of the Germans, you think of Hitler and concentration camps, like they’re a bunch of barbarians. We’re the barbarians. What if our lives possess as much value as any other life, even if we’re guilty, even if we were adults when we committed the crimes that put us in prison? What if, instead of the lie that’s been pounded into us at the business end of clubs, prisoners do have inherent value as human beings?”
It’s long past time to fundamentally change the shameful treatment of prisoners in this country. This is Kenneth E Hartman, Executive Director of the Other Death Penalty Project, from inside California’s prison system.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
