Prison...Prisoners...Prison Life...

     Prisons, prisoners, and prison life has touched my life at arm's length--superficial knowledge, and deep wonder.  Television portrayals, and news coverage have colored my understanding.  A deeper understanding calls for several steps to be taken.
     First, what television coverage, profiles, and portrayals have influenced my current understanding?  Extremes provide the best fodder for news coverage.  Charles Manson, Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, Susan Smith, O. J. Simpson, Bernie Madoff, Minnesota noted prisoners Tom Petters, and Denny Hecker are very random names, who come to mind--individuals who have been covered in the news.
     In midnight's dark shadows, I turned channels to find MSNBC's Lockdown series, which profiles individuals imprisoned in various prisons in the United States.  The series provides a bird's eye view of prison life.  Fears of the worst being commonplace have led me to turn away.  Yet, my insatiable curiosity--not morbid, but genuine curiosity--has drawn my eyes and ears back to attention.
    Those examples explain some influences on my current understanding of prisons, prisoners, and prison life.  Yet, that is not the end of my knowledge, understanding, and questions.
     My attention was sparked by a personal connection.  I do not doubt, yet, I cannot judge the crime committed that led to imprisonment.  Beyond a basic aversion to judging other people, what positive goal is achieved by imposing judgment?  The judicial system has imposed its judgment.  Some ask what the objective of imprisonment is--punishment, or rehabilitation.  I lean toward a rehabilitative view of prison.  To affirm my belief, the question becomes, "What may I do to further rehabilitation?"  Letter writing.  Do I need to do better?  Yes.
     What do I know--structurally, what do I know?
     There are divisions of prison types.  The United States has state and federal prisons--correctional institutions.  Those two prison systems have two subdivisions--women's and men's prisons.  Within each prison system there are levels of security--low security, minimum security, medium security, and maximum security.
     Federal correctional institutions [FCI] are managed by the Federal Bureau of Corrections.  There are six regions into which federal prisons are divided:  Mid-Atlantic Region;  North Central Region; Northeast Region; South Central Region; and Western Region.  Minnesota is within the North Central Region.  Federal Correctional Institutions within Minnesota are located in Duluth,  Rochester, Sandstone, and Waseca.  I confess I do not understand how placement decisions are made.  I do know that placements are not based on proximity to a criminal's hometown.
     I was surprised to learn that visits to prisoners were as long as seven or eight hours.  I do not know what factors enter into setting the length of each visit.  Is the visit length determined by standards that apply to every individual, who is imprisoned?  Is visit length determined solely by a level of contact?  I do know that prison lockdowns cancel all scheduled visits during that time, which makes sense.  Are there other factors that enter into the conditions during a visit.  I was surprised to learn that more than one individual could visit a prisoner at the same time.  There is a strict procedure by which an individual must be certified as a visitor before a visit.
     Two other forms of contact include telephone, and e-mail privileges.  I confess that I know nothing regarding the procedures, standards, or requirements that apply to telephone privileges.  I do know that there is a well-regulated e-mail system.  Before any e-mails may be exchanged, permission must be granted by the individual, who is imprisoned.  If I wanted to correspond with a given prisoner, I would have to send a message to the prisoner to secure the permission of that individual.  It is possible for an individual imprisoned to reach out to an individual with whom they want to correspond electronically.  Before e-mails may be exchanged, the individual to whom the prisoner has invited to correspond.  Once invitations are made and accepted, the exchange of e-mail messages is conducted differently than the standard e-mail procedures that I and other readers of this blog use.  There is an intermediary e-mail server known as Corrlinks.  The prisoner, or the individual, who has been certified as a correspondent, signs into the Corrlinks system.  Just as you and I do, the name of the prisoner or correspondent is entered in the To line.  Similarly, there is a Subject line, followed by a message dialog box.  But, there are two differences with Corrlinks.  Once the message is sent to the individual, the recipient receives a message from Corrlinks indicating that they have a message from the other individual.  There is one final very important distinction between standard e-mail practices and Corrlinks e-mail practices.  Messages sent through Corrlinks are monitored for content.  I was a recipient of an invitation to correspond with an individual, who is imprisoned. I am aware that my comments may be monitored.  I do not include any content that might be construed, in any way, to be controversial--content that might get the individual imprisoned in trouble.  That would defeat the purpose of trying to offer a connection to the outside world--an offering of hope for a brighter future.
     Two other forms of communication is available to some individuals, who are incarcerated.  I do not know the extent to which either of these resources are used, but, I do know that they exist.
     First, prisoners may have access to limited databases containing legal information, which may help them to research appeals to their convictions.  Second, prisoners may receive books from Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com.  They may receive subscriptions to the New York Times.  There may be other subscriptions they may receive--at least that is what I understand.  I do not know whether there are restrictions as to types of publications from Amazon.com, and Barnesandnoble.com.  I am not trying to spell out correctional institution regulations.  Rather, my purpose is to give a sense of what information is available to individuals in prison.  The information that is available is an important element in the view of the world prisoners have during their incarceration.
    Second, individuals in prison may receive, and do appreciate personal written correspondence--old-fashioned letters.  I have been led to believe that these individuals may receive a limited amount of pictures within each letter.  The exact number escapes me.  Going back to my recent post Insurance...Prayer for Safekeeping, examining prison life makes me aware of what I do have that offers me hope in dark moments,  when I am most in need.  Although I rarely look at them, I have several shelves of albums--both correspondence, and pictures.  I have correspondence dating back to my childhood.  I find great solace, or comfort in knowing that those treasures are near to me.
    I cannot write a lifetime of letters to a prisoner, yet, I can share the simple, everyday activities of my life with someone whose life circumstances are stark.  I do not want to contribute to glorifying everyday life outside of prison.  I want to offer hope, but, I do not want to be a party to any false glorification.
    I am reminded of Thornton Wilder's play, Our Town.  I was a high school junior, when I saw the play for the first time.  I missed the subtleties of the play.  I thought it was boring.  Since that time, it has become one of my favorite plays.  When Emily tells the stage manager, after she has died, that she wants to go back to one day in her life to relieve it, he gives her sage advice.  Essentially, the stage manager tells Emily to pick an ordinary day, rather than a milestone day.  He said that there would be many details of the day to notice that would be lost in relieving a more momentous day.   In my correspondence, my aim is to take heed of Wilder's message.  I try to share the ordinary events of my life.  I have no desire to preach--it serves no purpose in the prisoner's efforts to build a better future.  I try to provide a connection between the prisoner and the outside world that the two of us know.
     I may not know the exact events, and experiences of individuals in prison.  Yet, I cannot use that as an excuse not to try to understand, not to try to expand my imagining of prisoners' life circumstances, and experiences.