The Prison System In The Hate Factory By G. Hirliman

Kings of the Jungle A first-hand look of how the prison system works revealed to me that there is many flaws, unanswered questions, and things you just throw into the category of “not right”. Being no less than a cage away from anything ranging from, non-child support payers, public intoxication convicts to murders, and child molesters. Opened my eyes to these are still people who made mistakes, although, some may be emotionally disturbed in the end their still people. It only took one trip to Kirkland State Penitentiary to realize prisoners are still human beings who deserve respect, and basic rights. But clearly most of the workers could disagree. From my experience and my new gained knowledge from the book, The Hate Factory by G. Hirliman,
a book of interviews from prisoners about riots, conditions of prison, and overlooked problems. My view on the workers, would shock many. I am disgusted by the way the prison system is ranned from, “the good people”, including correctional officers, psychologists, and up to the highest authority. Prisoners act like animals, because they are treated as ones. The conditions and how the prison system is runned is the biggest problem in the prison system, we must fight to get crooked unskilled workers out to improve the prison system.
My proposal to this problem is to put workers through more intense training upon employment, have a reasonable ratio of female and male workers, have a diverse staff of all races, more surveillance cameras to support worker-inmate, inmate-inmate reports, and more severe consequences for workers breaking the law and
mistreating inmates. The reality is, believe it or not, most inmates are just trying to serve their sentence. Not interested in forming relationships, or getting into more trouble to extend their stay. Respectively their some that loves the excitement of trouble, or comes to the consensus that what do I have to lost, so why not fuck with other prisoners and workers. You can’t change the mindset of many people, so why not start off with the source, the workers. According to FogelLaw.com, a site on abuse in the prison system, and ways you can seek help, states, “Contrary to popular belief, inmate abuse is not a thing of the past. Misconduct and excessive force against inmates still occur today throughout the country” (Inmate Abuse). This is the starter to the problem, and I feel as if inmates just get fed up and react to up. Sometime using their backed up frustration on inmates, or workers. In the beginning of the riot, in the Hate Factory, the guards who got beaten and killed the worse, was the same guards who had mistreated them bad as well. An unexpected turn of event can happen at any moment, and these inmates never forget. While hurting the workers in crucial ways, “the maltreatment the screws had for forced on them flashed through their minds” (Hirliman, pg. 5). A former prisoner who was raped and sexually assaulted by a guard, repaid by sticking a greasy Billy club up his anus (Hirliman, pg.6). That’s why it’s so important, no matter where you are and whatever situation you’re in, to treat others how you want to be treated. A couple months of training is bullshit, if your job is to rehabilitee prisoners, some spending decades in the joint before heading back into society. Teachers attend college for a minimum of four years, to only teach or help develop a child for the one year there with them. More intense training needs to be done, or the hiring of “adequately educated personnel” (Hirliman, pg.7). You don’t learn how to drive a car in a day. You have to take a written test, driving courses, and wait till you’re a certain age until you have the power to drive on the road. That key is a gift, which you can abuse by not following the rules, hurting yourself and others. Your badge, Billy club, taser is a gift to you that you earned the right to use, but only if the situation calls for it. No need to hit inmates because their of a certain race, tase inamtes if they wont give you sexual favors. If you cant support your actions by laws, or your “intensive training” that has prepared you for this job, there is no reason for you to do it. Workers show, “no sign of humanity or intelligence”(Hirliman, pg.7). We as a society needs to bring more light to this, and the government needs to crack down on the prison system. It’s simply not right to treat inmates as worse as the crime they’ve committed when their serving their time, and you’re getting paid for it. Most worker-inmate incidents don’t get reported, when most inmates already know tehri case is going to be overlooked, or thrown away so why borther. I believe all reported cases should go straight to the government, or to courts no matter if its demmed by higher authorities of the prison system as petty or not. Why? Higher authorities are just as worse, as the correctional officers, so why would they support filing a claim, if their supporting in inducing the pain and mistreatment to inmates. Even if your case is unbearable to understand or cover, some higher authority would judge you on your race, sexual preference, or physical features and not give two shits about you or trying to get you the help you need. When not filing these cases it is hurting the already traumatized inmate even more, by not allowing to receive medical care or psychological help. Rights deemed to every citizen, imprisoned or not. The disturbing truth is prison is a jungle.
The “penitentiary is a zoo and the inmates are caged animals” (Hirliman, pg.24). Lessons from our tour support many complaints from inmates in the book. An inmate not receiving his glasses or specific medicine until weeks later, is torture in not being able to see but still expected to perform all actions of other inmates. When controlling shower times, spraying pepper spray, being strapped to a chair for hours at a time, are put in the hands of the wrong people, is immoral no matter how hard, they try to justify it. When “I dont know” or “just cause”, are the reasons for performing an action to inmate it’s not right. If you can’t support your claim or your way of defense, simply don’t do it. Prison is a zoo, and the workers are the king of the jungle. Abusing their powers, making up their own rules, and adding the ammunition, that killed anyone thought of a respectable ordered, justice
system.
The conditions and how the prison system is runned is the biggest problem in the prison system, we must fight to get crooked unskilled workers out to improve the prison system. My proposal is not to fire all workers, and allow the inmates to raise themselves while serving their stint away from society. But to allow them to get the treatment and respect they deserve while already serving the consquences of the actions. Prisoners are still human beings who made wrong decisions, not animals who deserve to get beaten, overlooked when they seek help, and discriminated against.