Prisons play a greater role in society than just warehousing people for social control and
profit. While all incarceration is violence, physical confinement is also an opportunity
to carry out psychological violence. This manufactured stress is not merely a result of
sadism carried out by individuals in authoritarian positions like in the Stanford Prison
Experiment. I see the purpose as being an attempt to legitimize state violence imposed on
incarcerated people by backing it with moral and intellectual authority. In order to
maintain control, the prison industrial complex and its administration must maintain
legitimacy in the eyes of inmates. If a radical analysis of the prison system were to
become popular among prison populations, a vastly greater amount of resources would be
needed to maintain control, if control could be kept at all. The same is true for the
public. Law enforcement would be rendered almost entirely ineffective without the faith
and cooperation of communities. In the Minnesota Department of corrections, all newly
committed offenders are assessed for substance abuse problems. In 2008, 80% of those
assessed were directed to complete treatment programming. (MN-DOC, 2009 Report to the
Legislature) Because of the vast number of treatment mandates, chemical dependency
treatment has become the cornerstone for imposing an ideology that attempts to legitimize
mass incarceration and mask the interests of capital and state that motivate the growing
prison industrial complex. Treatment programs serve several key functions for the
department of corrections:
1) Mandating Religious Ideology: The twelve steps have connections to the Oxford Group, a
Christian organization that was most popular during the 1930?s. Although there are
positive aspects to the AA/NA communities, this is of concern. Especially when treatment
is implemented involuntarily. Inmates who refuse or fail to carry out their treatment
mandates will have their parole delayed by 30 days and will miss out on opportunities to
transfer to lower security levels. Changing the twelve steps by substituting ?higher
power? where they used to say god does not change the fact that these programs are highly
suggestive. While nothing is wrong with an individual practicing the religion of their
choice, courts or prison administrations mandating programs that have ideology rooted in
organized religion is a violation of rights. This is not much different than if church or
any other religious service were made mandatory. Imposing ideology of a religious nature
instills a value system in which people are urged to display obedience to an external
authority. These principles are mirrored within society. Instead of taking control of
their lives, people place their fate in the hands of a ruler. The concept of the first of
the twelve steps is powerlessness, and this sets the tone for the entire program.
2) Undermining Prisoner Solidarity: While participating in prison treatment programs,
inmates live in areas with others going through the same program. These units are referred
to as therapeutic communities. There are many arbitrary rules and prisoners are encouraged
to confront and report behaviors in others that has been deemed to be negative by the
administration. Inmates are also pressured to inform on others in guided group
interaction. Collective punishment and favoritism for informants are common and highly
effective control tactics implemented. Constant threat of program failure resulting in
loss of parole time, work release or a reduction in security level is used to apply
additional pressure and promote inmates giving up information on each other. This causes
an environment of distrust among prisoners and essentially creates an inmate population
that polices itself. As a result it is very difficult for prisoners in a unit to organize
any resistance or express criticisms of the prison staff or program. Those who do not give
up information under pressure are said to be ?upholding the criminal code? or ?conspiring
with negative behavior.? It is effective in creating a population of scared, competing
individuals rather than a group of inmates with a sense of unity. Prisons, especially
treatment units deliberately create environments that won?t allow prisoner solidarity to
develop. This leaves inmates with options of being informants and collaborators with
prison administrators or taking part of prison politics, which divides incarcerated people
by race and gang affiliation. Neither snitch culture nor prison culture is a solution.
Inmates need to realize that their power is in their numbers and prisoner solidarity is
the only means by which a resistance can be carried out against the prison industrial complex.
3) Surveillance/Information Gathering: Treatment counselors working in prisons are
mandated reporters. This means that they are required to report any crime that they have
knowledge of. Inmates are asked extensively what kind of crime they are involved in during
group sessions as well as in mandatory treatment workbooks. Refusing to answer questions
would be considered to be uncooperative and could result in program failure. Counselors
also take notes during group sessions about a variety of sensitive topics. Information
regarding drug of choice, affiliation to any organizations deemed to be security threat
groups and any other details administration finds to be relevant is gathered. This
information is added to the file of each prisoner and is later used to aid law enforcement
in future cases or by officers working on various supervised release programs. Conflicts
between prisoners that could be resolved without intervention by officials often results
in disciplinary consequences for one or all those involved. Incarcerated people should be
cautious about the information they provide on themselves. Also, this can be used as an
opportunity, to provide disinformation to confuse or guide law enforcement in the wrong
direction.
4) Internalizing Oppression: There is an emphasis on personal responsibility in treatment
programs within the prison system. Although this appears to be a positive lesson, the
actual purpose of this is to place firmly in the minds of all who pass through these
programs that they are they are in the wrong and the system is in the right, that those
found to be in violation of the law are diseased degenerates or lack the morality to
function within society. This is not to say that individuals are not responsible for their
own actions. The problem is that there is no room to question the social and economic
factors that make poor people and people of color far more likely to enter the prison
system. Looking at the macro scale functioning of society is discouraged. This creates a
negative self-image and also prevents inmates from educating themselves and others about
the way that our current society really works. I see this approach as extremely harmful,
as it implies to incarcerated people that they are the sole cause of their painful
situation. The root causes of crime and the incarceration rate must be identified as
capitalism and white supremacy. Instead of insisting to punish the casualties of an unjust
society, we should be looking to change the conditions so that individuals no longer have
to commit crimes to meet their needs.
5) Maintaining Rehabilitative Image: The number of jails and prisons is only increasing.
Calls for reform are becoming more common. People are beginning to recognize that prisons
serve little more purpose than to warehouse the casualties of an unjust society. A very
high number of inmates are incarcerated for the possession or sale of drugs. Many thefts
and robberies are attributed to drug users. This is a largely stereotypical and inaccurate
view, because it is not drug addicts to steal, but poor people. Rich white suburban and
professional drug addicts do not steal. It is predominantly poor and working class drug
users of color who are put in positions where there is any need to steal. Treatment
programs allow for the argument that prisons provide rehabilitation for the individuals
who pose a threat to public safety. This explanation for crime keeps the discussion away
from the social conditions that drive up the crime rate. It is an avoidance tactic that
serves to divert us from questioning the legitimacy of the legal system itself and its
purpose within capitalism and the state. With a closer look, the assumptions that crime
are a result of immoral or diseased people, that prisons jails and law enforcement exist
to protect innocent civilians from these people, and that through caging these people we
can somehow rehabilitate them prove to be extremely simplistic and inaccurate. We should
be adopting a mind state in which we are looking to do away with the elements of society
that create a need for prisons. Recidivism rates refute the claims that prisons are
rehabilitative. The criminal justice system is punitive, when it should be preventative.
External policing of entire neighborhoods does not prevent crime. Only meeting the needs
of the people and building security directly through communities can prevent crime.
I have no judgments against self-identified drug addicts who voluntarily participate the
in AA/NA programs ran by inmates that exist in every prison facility. It is commendable
for individuals put in the work to overcome their substance abuse problems. I also have
doubts about the effectiveness of drug treatment if it is not a voluntary, intrinsically
motivated undertaking. If these groups exist, what is the need for another separate, staff
run, regimented, high stress, coercive program? 12 step programs are now really nothing
more than a branch of the prison industrial complex. My thought is that inpatient
treatment programs within prisons are less about the well being of inmates struggling with
their drug use. It seems that the main purpose of the treatment programs within the
department of corrections is to serve the functions mentioned above. Prison treatment
counselors are nothing more than specialized type of corrections officer. Prison treatment
programs are a tool of the prison industrial complex used to push an ideology that
legitimizes the slavery and brutality that is mass incarceration.
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