Yesterday Shadowshaper and Bone Street Rumba series author Daniel José Older shared a thoughtful meditation on prison culture on Twitter. Older holds writing workshops for kids in juvenile detention, and he wanted to convey the despair that is built into the system. The thread attracted thoughts from those who have worked in prisons in various capacities.
The tweets have been reformatted slightly for ease of reading.
I’ve been to a number of detention facilities – never as inmate, always as medic or teacher – always struck by that deep chill they cultivate
it’s like a souldeath. Only way I can put it. If you’ve been in ’em you know.
Today before class, found myself clenching my fists involuntarily. Wasn’t around anyone else, wasn’t in danger. Just tense. Wary. Sad.
These are not places built for human beings. They have nothing to do with humanity, or survival, growth or healing. They’re made for things.
— Daniel José Older (@djolder)
My stay in a psych ward changed my life for a very perverse reason: made me desperate to do ANYTHING to avoid returning there.
— Mishell Baker (@mishellbaker)Design philosophy based on age old “lock away things feared or undesirable”. Sadly we rarely reevaluate such things eons later.
— Dayo Ntwari (@DayoNtwari)
Things meant to be discarded, forgotten, lost.
Souldeath.
There’s a protocol detention facilities have: the door behind you must close before the one ahead of you can open.
And you always feel like – what if that moment expands? A blackout or emergency shutdown, and you’re just stuck there, endlessly…
And then you realize that IS what it’s like for the inmates. And you have to shake off the hellish shivers so you can keep going.
Every time I go to a detention facility, I’m reminded of how important prison abolition work by folks like @prisonculture is. It’s crucial. And facility I teach creative writing at is relatively humane – there’s a gardening program, the windows are reinforced but not barred…It’s still not built for humans. Especially not growing young humans.
It’s still not built for humans. Especially not growing young humans.
The kids are brilliant writers, of course. Brilliant writers in cages, surrounded by frowning faces and neverending danger.
— Daniel José Older (@djolder)
It speaks against the ideals of everything we hold dear when we let great minds waste away in juvenile prisons, man.
— Theo Taylor (@theotaylorr)
Class alternates between utter chaos and total focused brilliance. It’s confusing as hell, for all of us I’m sure. But there’s progress.
It’s a telling indictment of how we view mental health how similarly we construct prisons and psych wards. Neither is about healing.
A lot of the work we need to do, whether as artists or activists or both, is drawing line. Lines btwn prisons, schools, hospitals, courts…
Lines between our own beloved mediums – art, writing, music – and the damage done. Lines between privilege and poverty.
— Daniel José Older (@djolder)
I would like SF writers to imagine a world without prisons
— Angelic Troublemaker (@sasha_feather)
I’ve worked in maybe 200 federal and state prisions and over 100 jails – feel it is my duty to show cats we got their backs
— thoughtcrime (@RawDawgBuffalo)
same here, as an interpreter. I, too believe that humans are not built to benefit from detention. Esp juveniles.
— T’Holla de Wakanda (@LaLinguista)
I visited juvie in LA in 2012. So sad. Those boys have had their spirits crushed.
— GabriellePrendergast (@GabrielleSaraP)
One boy today started writing a story titled “How To Escape.” The guards told him he had to change it so he made it “How To Survive.”
That pretty much says it all.
— Daniel José Older (@djolder)
You can learn more about the Prison Book Program here, and the work of Project NIA here. Head over to Daniel José Older’s Twitter feed for more of the conversation.
