“You Paid For It.”
Every day I watch the district prison guards yell, scream, and throw hissy fits because they lack the simple intelligence to use their authority responsibly, to get prisoners to act accordingly. And I witnessed how incompetent prison administrators lack the moral courage to enforce a more healthy prison environment that fosters discipline, rehabilitation, and safety.
But what I find perplexing is why would the public pay sadistic prison guards 50 to 70 thousand dollars just to yell, scream and throw hissy fits, or pay incompetent prison administrators 90 to 120 thousand dollars who often do nothing but high corruption, abuse, and mistreatment. To be fair, there are a few good prison guards and administrators, but the corruption and incompetence runs so deep within the New York state prison system that the bad outweighs the good.
No one expects prisons to be country clubs. Even we prisoners get that. But when taxpayers are paying for corruption and incompetence disguised as being hard on “violent criminals,” something is wrong with that. The public doesn’t have to care what happens to prisoners behind these walls, but you should care about your tax dollars being wasted.
Most of you are barely making ends meet living paycheck to paycheck while prison guards, who don’t need nothing but a GED to get this job and prison administrators who are getting well paid to yell, scream, and make frivolous policies that don’t protect public safety.
This is Dontie S. Mitchell, better known as Mfalme Sikivu, reporting to you from Comstock, New York. Follow me on Facebook @FreeDontieMitchell. Thank you for listening, and God bless.
(Sound of a cell door closing.) These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.
