Lines between the have and have-nots in America are rarely drawn as vividly or so unfairly than those chalked up in its criminal justice system. Get with the program, whatever life hands you, or become a number the system draws upon when budgets are crunched.
Too many Americans habitually reserve a jaded reverence for renters at the top of the heap; smugly extract stench tolls from those caught beneath its transient weight.
Al Tompkins links to this AP report describing what some have-nots in Arkansas are looking forward to this Christmas.
‘Special favours’ include two apples, two oranges, and a $5 dollar bill; a ‘traditional’ holiday meal and the day off for most from work duties. These ‘humane’ gestures are paid for with fees collected from telephone calls and confiscated monies.
Visits from loved ones and their gifts are taboo. Carolers from religious groups in the community are welcomed.
If small towns in Arkansas are a reflection of the rural communities I know and love at least a few of those yuletide singers will have histories that rival some of the inmates they entertain. It wasn’t faith in God that kept them from sharing a prisoner’s fate. More than likely it was an exchange of words and money with the Asst. DA over drinks at the local tavern.
Hallelujah.
Florida’s Governor Jeb Bush has dedicated the country’s first faith-based prison in a ceremony attended by nearly 800 inmates of 26 faiths.
Lawtey Correctional Institution:
It’s ironic that affirmative action of this sort is championed so often by the right. It’s obscene that a patriarch with Jeb Bush’s familial history would be the one to lord over its inception.
I don’t suggest that faith can’t be a sustaining comfort to those who are experiencing rough times.
But prayer alone won’t conjure the jobs that might keep some from committing crimes, or produce the necessities that enable us to sustain employment, like affordable housing, reliable transportation, and child care.
It won’t purchase a stay in expensive rehabilitation facilities or even more importantly, a favourable ruling from the local judge so we might have that option.
And it won’t convince the decision makers in Arkansas that absent a visit from loved ones that would compromise their employees’ holiday season, a concert that includes songs by John Prine would be much more humane than yet another chorus of ‘Away In A Manger’ imparted by the local hypocrites.
It was Christmas in prison
and the food was real good
we had turkey and pistols
carved out of wood
and I dream of her always
even when I don’t dream
her name’s on my tongue
and her blood’s in my stream.
Chorus:
Wait awhile eternity
old mother nature’s got nothing on me
come to me
run to me
come to me, now
we’re rolling
my sweetheart
we’re flowing
by God!
She reminds me of a chess game
with someone I admire
or a picnic in the rain
after a prairie fire
her heart is as big
as this whole goddamn jail
and she’s sweeter than saccharine
at a drug store sale.
Chorus:
The search light in the big yard
swings round with the gun
and spotlights the snowflakes
like the dust in the sun
it’s Christmas in prison
there’ll be music tonight
I’ll probably get homesick
I love you. Goodnight.
Chorus: