.jpg) |
| Credit William Thorpe |
My Name is William Thorpe. I'm a Virginia prisoner exiled to the Texas prison system and I am in solitary confinement. Starting in Virginia on August 9th, 1996 after a hostage-taking at Nottoway Correctional Center and I'm still in solitary-confinement at the Wainwright Unit of the Texas prison system.
I respond to Bradley S. Clarke within the context of Virginia's use of the extra-judicial act of solitary-confinement, because he specified Virginia in his April 17th work and more importantly I speak authoritatively on Virginias solitary-confinement practices because I have experienced all of its conditions and circumstances.
I begin with a correction: Mr. Clark tells us that "the special management unit of the Eyman State Prison Complex in Florence, Arizona was the first Supermax facility constructed in the United States [in 1986]"' This is wrong, Virginia's Mecklenburg Correctional Center, which opened in March 1977, was the nations first, under the logic of "to provide maximum security segregation and treatment for the most difficult inmates."
I'm not about to put together a 50+ paragraph response to Mr. Clarke's work which I consider ignores the crux of the issue of solitary-confinement, which is its extra-judicial nature, it's lawlessness.
What Is Solitary-Confinement
Solitary-confinement is a default, lawless fact of the idealistic and speculative expression of the ad hoc nature of the justice system, which in more ways than one exist extra-judicially.
The imprisoned and non-imprisoned Virginian exist solely as creations of the rule of law and its speculative continuum. But the existence is a past tense of law. What I mean by this is: Imprisonment is an after the fact of a conviction. The conviction, its travesties,vagaries, is an after the fact of the alleged criminal code violation, which consist a process according to the social contract or the rule of law is due. If all aspects of Virginia society exist under the omnipotent umbrella of rule of law, then any imposition and assertion by the state, the collective will of the people as organized violence, which prison and its extra-judicial practice of solitary-confinement is a crucible has to occur within a process, the rule of law. But what we encounter is its violation on all accounts as a petty cudgel of control, a transformation into crass suppositions whose farcial legitimacy is its relationship and proximity to money and its redistributive value within the locale of the prison.
So we see that the practice of solitary-confinement is a cash cow, a money tree, a feed lot for the political-economy of the prison system. To wit, which we are presented with the perverse logic of the Virginia Department of Corrections claiming it will cost $23 million to reform its solitary-confinement practice addiction. Consequently, prison officials are unwilling to relinquish their clutch and grubbing grasp of the free flow of the taxpayer money into their solitary-confinement regime.
I challenge Mr. Clarke to do a rework. beginning with explaining to us, the ignorant people why the Virginia Department of Corrections reformulated the solitary-confinement practice at its supermax prisons, Red Onion and Wallens Ridge State Prisons in 2011 after both prisons which opened in 1998 and 1999 respectively had been operating a solitary-confinement regime of the same prisoners it reclassified under a distortive and opaque verbiage - yet solitary confined. He cited Red Onions step down program without critical analysis of its legitimacy, save as I've stated a mechanism for cash flow, a feed for the prison systems political-economy.
Bradley S. Clarke Is An Apologist for the Extra-Judicial Act of Solitary-Confinement
In his apologetic zeal Mr. Clarke introduces us to a couple of anonymous prison guards who are so completely and thoughroly immersed in the impunity of extra-judicial behavior that the irony of their existence as prison guards because of the rule of law escapes them as evidenced by the cavalier nature of their ascribed quotes, starting with:
"People don't get a view of it. They don't understand why we lean towards [using solitary confinement] instead of against it"
Mr. Clarke continues:
Neither Jimmy nor Matt credits the argument that solitary confinement constitutes torture." The guys aren't going down in a hole they're not being tortured", Matt said "they're still getting every meal that they're supposed to get, they're still getting it delivered to their cell. It's not like they're being withheld anything that they're supposed to have." Jimmy argues that the entertainment industry makes solitary confinement out to be worse than it is exasperated Jimmy said "I would love for somebody to sit back and provide the correctional community with another option that is anywhere near as effective."
The indefatigable Kimberly Jenkins-Snodgrass
Mr. Clarke closed his work with commentary from Kim J. one of a number of the Virginia minds and hearts working tirelessly to hold the Virginia Department of Corrections Accountable to its mission statement. I close with it isn't apparent from Mr. Clarkes work the basis of his interest, but if as a citizen his scrutiny into prison as a system and expression of the organized violence of the state is to render it transparent thus accountable, then I, along with the listed groups welcome his involvement, support, and alliance.
ACLU of Virginia
ACLU People Power Fairfax
Bridging The Gap In Virginia
Charlottesville Chapter National Organization for Women
Coalition for Justice
The Humanization Project
Inmate Support Virginia
Interfaith Action for Human Rights (IAHR)
Just Future Project
NAACP Loudoun
National Association of Social Workers, Virginia Chapter
Resource Information Help for the Disadvantaged and Disenfranchised (RIHD)
SALT-Social Action Linking Together
Social Workers and Allies Against Solitary Confinement
Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry of Virginia
Virginia Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy
Virginia Justice Democrats
Virginia Justice for Life
Virginia Prisoner Of Conscience
Virginia Prison Justice Network
Virginia Prisons Accountability Committee
WJCC Coalition for Community Justice
*NOTE To be added to the growing list email us at vapacommittee@gmail.com
By William Thorpe
No comments :
Post a Comment