prison, Florida, ex-offender, Sharif, Reflections of a System Gone Bad

Dear Society:

By way of politicians and governors like the ones in Florida, and through a gullible and intimidated and frightened society, imprisonment has become the response of first resort to far too many of the social problems that burden America's people who are ensconced in abject poverty. These daily problems often are veiled by being conveniently grouped together under the guise of "crime". Homelessness, poor medical care, unemployment, mental illness, drug addiction, and illiteracy are only a few of the problems that disappear from society's view when the human beings contending with them are regulated to cages; like the one where I spent the last 9 years.

Prisons thus perform a magical feat. Or rather the people in society who continually vote in these shady elected officials like Jeb Bush and staff,( who in turn grant new prison deals and tacitly assent to a proliferating network of prisons/jails), have been tricked into believing in the magic of imprisonment ;as enforced by Michael Moore and his FDOC crime family. But surely you must know by now that prisons do not disappear problems, if anything they create new problems, and they disappear human beings. And the practice of disappearing large numbers of people from poor, immigrant, and racially marginalized communities has undeniably become big, big, business here inside the beacon of democracy.

Society, this voodoo magic being practiced always conceals an enormous amount of behind-the-scene work. When these hell-holes, more commonly referred to as prisons, disappear men, women and children from our communities in order to convey the illusion of solving this countries social problems, penal infrastructures must be created to accommodate this rapidly swelling population of caged humans. Goods and services must be provided to keep imprisoned populations alive. Sometimes these slave populations must be kept busy, and at other time for those who challenge the legitimacy of the policies and practices of their keepers ( like in my case of 4 years in a repressive CM super-max unit) they must be isolated and deprived of virtually all meaningful activity and constitutional rights as well as human rights.

In the field of what is euphemistically called "corrections", little to no corrections are being made. How can the system of "corrections" attempt to assist in the correction of its charges deviant behavior and related social problems when the system wont even face up to, and acknowledge the need for correction within itself.

There are over two million people currently locked up in the immense network of u.s. prisons/jails. More than 70% of them are people of color, just like me. The dividends that accrue from investments in the punishment industry, like those that accrue from investments in weapons production etc., benefit the lobbied politicians from the governor on down. Society earns nothing on these investments except ultimate social destruction.

Short of major wars (like the so-called war on terrorism), mass incarceration has been the most thoroughly implemented government social program of our time.

When are you people in society are gonna stand up for yourself and say enough is enough? How long will you continue to call acts "crimes" which are not criminal in intent or effect. The sooner you gain the courage to face reality and do something about it, the sooner this world will be a better place for you and I and our children to live in peace.

Sincerely yours,

Sharif

(the ex-felon)

Surviving the System	A System Gone Bad	Open Season on Prisoners	Prison Food Costs Less
Medical Mayhem	Letter To Society	*******	*******

SHARIF	HIS EFFORTS	HIS FRUSTRATION
*******	HIS ESSAYS	HIS POETRY
PRISON TIME	UPDATES	*******