Thousands have rioted at the Reeves County Detention Center in Texas. Sadly, nobody seems to know why. The silence from the prisoners, their inability to articulate the trouble inside, gets at the heart of the trouble with the contemporary prison system--those on the inside are silenced and nobody really cares.
Imagine for a minute being locked in a cage. Furthermore, think about how devastating it would be to be maltreated, locked away from society, and unable to articulate the full range of thoughts and emotions going on inside. How could you articulate a grievence without a podium to speak from.
I am disturbed that the state denies access to computer technologies and the Internet to most prisoners. For those with family on the inside and those who care about the conditions of the most oppressed people in our society, it would be a blessing to hear from those people locked away. In the history of literature, some of the greatest writing has come from incarcerated people. From Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, many of the writings of the Marquis de Sade, Martin Luther King Junior, Henry David Thoreu, Oscar Wilde, and Jean Genet came from behind bars. Imagine how rich the blogs of prisoners could be.
As the situation at the Reeves County Detention Center fades into the annals of history, do not stop questioning why the riot began, what the conditions are like at Reeves, and how the situation might have been different had the inmates been given a voice, a chance to connect with the outside world.
For more information about prison abolition, check-out Critical Resistance.
For information about writers who have been jailed, go to the Pen website.
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