Yes, prisoners do stupid stuff. People in the free world do stupid stuff. The issue isn't pointing out the obvious that people do stupid stuff. The question, however, is how do we hold prison officials accountable. Whether or not a prisoner doing self-defeatist stuff has nothing to do with the fact that a prison official has an obligation to comply with and follow those same laws that got the prisoner in prison.
The question is: How do we hold accountable prison officials? One thing for sure is without the focus and attention of prisoner loved ones, families and friends, the only thing we would know about prison is the stupid stuff prisoners do and nothing the about lawlessness of prison officials.
Let's take the recent incident at South Carolina's Lee Correctional Institute where 7 prisoners were killed and 17 injured. For example, all we hear from South Carolina's government and it officials is gang members killed each other over stuff gangs do. Now all of that could very well be true. But instead, it should be on how South Carolina's Government and its prison officials exacerbated, aggravated, incited and ensured the inevitability that gangs would do gangs. How many of you have read the voluminous amount of lawsuits filed by South Carolina prisoners relative to violations prison officials who have taken an oath to follow the law and behave professionally, are anything but?
The earth of South Carolina is historically as any other square inch of U.S. soil, drenched, soaked in blood and injustice and that again is stating the obvious. The question is: How do we hold accountable government officials.
As we work collectively as families and friends of prisoners seeking accountability of prison officials, let's not forget that victims of crime are also members of the collective and we embrace them. We all know that victims of crime would gladly trade in the prison sentence given the perpetrator for a reversal of the criminal act ever happening and there is no such thing as closure. But there has been this us against them narrative that diabolically pits the work of holding prison officials accountable as families and friends of prisoners are not concerned with the realities of crime. When the reality of the criminal act and its genesis has as much to do with the same lack of accountability and transparency by prison officials which we all know too well as above the law impunity.
By William Thorpe, I'm Held in Solitary Confinement
P.S. As I concluded this work it was announced, 4/25/18; that the U.S. Government is indicating 14 South Carolina prison officials for a number of federal crimes, including racketeering, dating as far back as 3 years. Of course, the recent incident at the Lee Prison sped this up.
Yes, this is a type of accountability but it still fits that one-dimensional definition of malfeasance. South Carolina Prison officials as their brethren in Virginia have broken rules on a daily basis and if there is nothing more democratic than equality under the law, then prison officials must be held to account.
By William Thorpe
