Word to the Masses: Criminal

Yo, C.O.,

I can’t remember when I stopped acknowledging your last name and you became the state drone known as, C.O. to me. Maybe it was the first time you handed my mail to someone other than myself – as if it didn’t matter that my loved one’s words were written for me. You just couldn’t see their words being my lifeline; the difference between me being civilized, and you feeling threatened.

Tell me C.O., how would the rest of your day go if something as intimately delicate as a scribe from the grandchild you have yet to meet were placed in the ‘care’ of someone you don’t really care for? It’s only mail, right?

You have to understand that your place of work cages people that have been convicted of criminal acts. Some are mentally ill with the potential for violence. Why would you want to do anything to agitate such a volatile environment? I will never forget the way you badgered Henry Hunt about having too much property.

You were even brazen to the point of calling him a ‘pack rat’ mere weeks before his scheduled execution. The tears in his eyes had everything to do with his resentment for you, C.O. You really have a way with people.

I loathe the day that ‘Old Man King’ and I observed your colleagues showering you with congratulatory gestures when you were promoted to lieutenant. All the while, we struggled to breathe in a nearby holding cell that reeked of urine. I can still hear ‘Old Man King’ cussing your existence as the laughs and handshakes seemed to be unending. You do remember James King, right?

If you do, you’d probably think he should be grateful for your immediate response to the sounds of 15 men kicking on the cell doors, and yelling to get your attention while the old-timer suffered his second stroke, in the wee hours of the morning.

We can’t deny that you got him to the hospital in time to save his life. But every day after, he required the assistance of a walker, cane, or a wheelchair. He eventually lost the lower half of his right leg due to complications with diabetes. But, you know this all too well. Don’t you C.O?

I mean, it was you who single – handedly confiscated his walking cane years later because his medical paperwork expired. That was some spectacle you put on that day, C.O. I just can’t get the image of you leaving the block, and twirling his cane like some sort of drum major out of my head. Would you consider that to be one of the finer moments in your decorated career?

There was numerous times your excessive authority led to me paying a $10 fine. When the state began charging $10 per infraction, it was no longer about keeping my nose clean. On your watch it was more so about when it would get dirty. I can still see you sitting where only I sleep – rummaging through my most personal letters – searching for anything that might qualify me for a stay in the cage.

So you confiscated a drawing of a stripper giving me a lap dance. It was signed by several cats on the row, and given to me as a birthday card. You decided to write it up as, “an inmate possessing pornographic material.” Contraband; $10. It is clear to me that you obviously have no regard for a Mann clinging to life. As if capital punishment wasn’t unjust enough, I find your oppressive actions to be criminal.

If nothing, I said has resonated with you then please know this:

Within these walls, the broken hearts of people who make a living, just by staying alive, will always outnumber you. You on the other hand, come here to make a living.

A person should wear the uniform – not the other way around. A person would not allow themselves to be defined by the utility belt, pepper spray, and retractable baton. The person is someone who helps. They acknowledge it is not their place to inflict further punishment on men/women already condemned to die.

Then we have you, C.O. A serviceable drone programmed to bark commands, push carts, dump trash, and feed the ‘criminals’ that make you feel better about yourself. You just don’t realize the only difference between your 12 hour shift and my residency is; living creates jobs.

We all bear a uniform that complies with the prison plantation dress ordinance. A clear reflection of what is criminal.

R.I.P., Henry Hunt (Executed 9/12/03) and James King (Expired 8/1/13)

MannofStat