What is the nature of punishment?

Letter 19

July 04, 2008

Hi, Ted,

    My day has begun badly, but I have learned with my keeper's I must bow my head so they cannot look into my eyes and see the wolf, remain subservient in demeanor, silent, and the storm will generally pass without further confrontation. Ever since my stroke, I have had difficulties swallowing, takes me a long time to eat as the result. In fact, after I'd lost 43 pounds, the doctor ordered I be fed in my cell where I have time to eat, in place of going to the chow-hall with everyone else where no allowance is made by the guards for the infirm.
    This morning 'medical' delivered my pain medication, and instead of only one pill, morphine (a "time release" thingy) not being crushed and poured into water, as they normally do for me, all three were intact. When I had trouble swallowing them, the nurse accused me of 'playing games.' I fumed – silently. It is a bit humiliating having people young enough to be my grandchildren talking down to me as if I were a child.

    What is needed, and corrections has refused to supply, is turn one of its 33 prisons into a "medical facility" in which can be gathered together those of us with chronic health concerns, instead of having us spread out over the entire state, a hundred in one prison, a hundred in another, where we are "in the way." I assure you the guards do not appreciate the distraction we often are when unexpectedly, or 'expectedly['] depending upon one's view, become ill out on the yard, or in the cell block, as the guards attempt to watch over thousands of healthy security concerns. Unfortunately, most of the bulls make their resulting irritation obvious to us, no matter the 'fault['] is not ours: Unless they  see our growing old here, our health deteriorating, as something we should have kept from happening. (If California did not sentence its 'offenders' to so much 'time' we need to carry it around wheelbarrows, this would not be
happening today  - the growing population of aging convicts.
    Presently when it is determined a prisoner has but a short time left to exist he is placed inside a room, chained to a bed there, and that is where he passes from his time on this earth. I so would appreciate being allowed to die better than I have lived but I suppose it is generally felt we do not deserve to die so with any measure of dignity – I suppose one of the consequences for having made the wrong choices. It's about "punishment!" to the very end.
    I imagine some day there will be a 'central' medical facility but I doubt it will happen in my time, which should surprise a huge number of taxpayers, considering it would save a "strapped for cash" state billions of dollars over the years if a prison medical facility was put into operation.

    Sitting here this Fourth of July, thinking back over the many I suffered through while an incarcerated child being 'punished' by a society that had no idea I even existed, I am doing what I fear the most – remembering. The holidays were the worst, especially Christmas. Believing no one cared is the worst punishment of all for a young person, as it is for my cellie today. No matter how bravely he struggles to hide it, I see the pain in his face every time he looks at me whenever I am handed a letter.
    I know he is close to accepting the "life" sentence he was given 7 years ago, when he was just 16 years old, by a 'justice' system that decided to throw him away: I know it's not the 'time' – it's the knowledge his family, specifically his mother, father, and sister, has likely turned away from him, deciding to go on without including him in their lives. Intimately I know his pain – nothing is more emotionally destructive, there is no worse punishment for a young boy, than to know/believe nobody cares. Been there, done that, and it was so painful all I could think about was to escape or kill myself – I wanted to go home and there was nothing that was going to keep me from trying to make that happen.

    I am 65 years old, have experienced things most people I know of will never experience, some events so unbelievable I've never written about them – never will. I have been stabbed, shot, beaten until I stopped breathing; handcuffed to cell bars and whipped to a bloody pulp by my guards. I wasted away inside solitary confinement for nearly five years; a dark cell in which I was unable to 'see' there was not a toilet, sink, nor bed – during which my best friend, whom I loved far more than most people could ever understand, was a sewer rat I had named "Warden."
    None of the above came anywhere close to causing the devastating emotional and psychological suffering brought on by the knowledge I had no one who cared about what was happening to me except my loyal friend Warden. Well, here I go again…. [The story about Warden is in CONSEQUENCE.]

    What is the nature of punishment? Oddly enough, I began ruminating on this question – one that is rarely asked in this country – yesterday while looking at a Dennis The Menace cartoon. Dennis was in his familiar place in the corner facing the wall, a baseball bat, ball and mitt at his feet. "Baseball players are sent to the showers… not the corner," the caption is quoting him as saying. One cannot help but imagine the defiant anger in his voice as he laments his victimhood…

    Even at the age of six, when sent to the corner, Dennis becomes a victim in his own mind. "She did this to me," his child's mind thinks about his mother and temporary jailer. The cartoon drawing has not a hint of the crime that sent him to house arrest, except for the likelihood it is related to the bat and ball on the floor. And, as amused as we are at Dennis' observation, we cannot keep ourselves from recognizing his sense of being the victim, and in a strange way we feel his pain.
    But, without the critical connection between cause and effect, what purpose does his punishment serve? How do we define it? How do we distinguish between the immediate reaction to the behavior we want to correct – that literal slap on the wrist when a child is found with his hand in the cookie jar, or when discovered playing with matches – and the more deliberately thought out consequences that are stretched over time, often involving formal and time-consuming processes before they can be implemented? Our notions of between right and wrong, of acceptable and unacceptable behavior, are conditioned by those 'instant' responses to the choices we make. In those situations, it is impossible to escape personal responsibility. The nexus between what we did and the response is much to close to permit our minds to justify our acts or to lay responsibility on the shoulders of others. (Still with me, Ted? I'm on another one here.)

            The juvenile system, societies "formal punishment," on the other hand is a time-consuming process (whether we're talking hours or years) which allows just such rationalization to occur, rationalizations which undermine its very purpose or, at least, the purpose we want to believe it accomplishes. Like Dennis standing in the corner, those we process through our formal system of punishment are so far removed from the precipitating cause of the system's response, they are easily able to recast themselves into the role of victims and, indeed, they are. Now stripped of power to do anything but respond to officials, they are subjected to the indignities that those with newly acquired power over their lives routinely subject them to.

            I spent years incarcerated in county juvenile halls and youth prisons, where pubescent children are routinely sent to "punish" them for criminal activity ranging from petty theft to stealing cars; from selling drugs to acts of violence – most often stemming from gang activity. Though they know they have been arrested and locked-up to be "punished," when told what to do by staff every minute of every day (often subjected to arbitrary misuse of corrupting power) these young "criminals" invariably complain they are victims "being played" by the cops, by the courts, by the counselors, "by the system."

            It's a very rare individual who actually ponders the relationship between the specific acts leading to long-term consequences and the degrading powerless position they are now forced to occupy. Even the ubiquitous "do-the-crime, do-the-time" response is nothing more than a cliché that prompts no real sense of 'personal' responsibility, the sine qua non of successful punishment, where success is defined as moderating future behavior.

            Perhaps it is this 'disconnect' that leads to the astonishing rate of recidivism among California's juvenile offenders, the highest in these United States. According to "California Division of Juvenile Justice," until recently known as the California Youth Authority, "70% of state-committed youth are re-arrested (http://www.cjcj.org/pdf/cjjrpbrochure.pdf) within two years of their release." [I'm suspecting, logically speaking, the 'actual' percentage of "re-offenders" must be higher since so many perpetrators escape detection.]

            Again, "logically speaking," I feel we can be certain no other government agency, or private company, would long remain in business with such a high rate of failure, yet we continue this long failed, long known to be rogue and dysfunctional, structure of crime and punishment. Which leads me back to the original question inspired by that Dennis The Menace cartoon: What is the nature of punishment? If the system does not work to end, or seriously curtail, the behavior we are trying to effect, then why do we keep using it?

            When answering that question, keep in mind, 'the system,' is not "the best we have," as critics of "prison reform" would have us believe. In fact there are a number of U.S. states, and several 'countries,' which have for decades been operating "functional" juvenile penal systems that serve well those entrusted to their care without incorporating corporeal punishment and solitary confinement.

            We need to consider the answer(s) might have more to do with us, the punishers, than with the punished. Perhaps, as I have written in the past, because the reformative effect of physical and psychological abuse as punishment so tantalizes our sadistic impulses and lust for revenge, we 'dig in our heels' whenever the question of reforming California's juvenile penal system surfaces? Perhaps we garner far too much satisfaction from the punishment of our children who dare to disrespect us; who flip us the finger; who refuse to listen and not do what we tell them they must; who some time frighten us? Perhaps it's the sense of control we gain from exerting official power over them?

            Or could it be, just maybe, our motivation is drawn from a deeper well, darker, more sinister – our reptilian brains – where lurk human traits we would rather not explore because they reveal more about us than we want to know about ourselves?

            These are questions we seldom ask, reflections on a topic we seldom ponder, but until we do we all remain at risk, as abuse of our incarcerated children, as with all prisoners, leaves victims on both sides of the fences.

            Now, in part, I share with you from the perspective of a Buddhist priest who, after years of raising his own children, teaching students, and counseling prisoners, concludes (quote):

            "No form of punishment, be it corporal or psychological, works. It is injurious, causes [unnecessary] pain, and is counterproductive. The 'deliberate' infliction of pain on a child in response to an action after it has occurred can in no way change the effect of that action, nor can it serve to educate or awaken." (unquote)

            Would it surprise you to learn I agree? [Drawn smiley face] I'm being facetious. The physical and/or emotional pain of punishment done to children does nothing other than traumatize and instill fear. Besides, not only does it damage the young people, it damages and enslaves those who inflict it. ["Victims on both sides of the fences."]

            It is indeed difficult to clearly see the profound depth of this because we live within an oppressive and coercive environment. Our vision is completely blocked to the truth by materialism in the physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of our lives. With our arrogance forever seducing us, our aggression permeating every corner of our society, the judicial system, and even our religious traditions, we are blinded: It is the rare individual who sees clearly enough to question the premise of punishment on a fundamental level.

            We live in a nation impregnated by violence, in which our wrath is felt throughout the world. Infliction of pain us worshipped in our entertainment, our media reporting, and our day-to-day interrelationships with one another. Most of us seem to have but a vague awareness that this is our legacy, that of anger, hatred and oppression, inherited from ou[r] parents, and they from theirs. "America" was built, piece by piece, state by state, on a foundation of violent conquest and enslavement of indigenous people! Along the way a few murders and assassinations of those who disagree continues to keep everyone in line.

            We use our religious institutions to murder, justify committing genocide when it suits us, "In the name of God and civilization!" Oh, let's not forget "in the name of" the economic gain for people of privilege and wealth. "In the name of" we excuse our cruelty, and Bien sure qu'll me pardonnerz; c'est netier. ("God will forgive me; that is his business.")

            I doubt we will any time soon get around to working things out, for our history reveals that 'reason' and working 'together' is not our best qualities. It takes deep felt interaction, an ability to communicate; an 'understanding' & accepting of our responsibilities, both to society and its children – keeping in mind we must first educate ourselves and learn self-discipline & restraint before setting out to lead our most troubled. We will accomplish nothing through fear tactics and intimidation via an antiquated, broke, 'justice' system that has been failing our children, and us, since its conception.

            When I got to thinking about you today, and decided to write, I did not have a whole lot to pen. But I knew, as it always seems to work out, once I got started something will form, and this is what you got this time around. I'd appreciate your thoughts?

            Do you still do that thing online, where you put some of my writings? If you find this to be worthy, please put it there…. I'm thinking the feedback, pro & con, would be interesting, and there is nothing I appreciate more than to debate "pro's and con's." [Drawn smiley face]

            So far, so good, this ribbon has given no sign of giving up the ghost. Should be good for another letter to you. As always, am sending my regards and look forward to hearing from you when the time becomes available to you. Much respect, my friend.

Sonny [in signature form]