fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3516 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3516 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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The entire rest of this post is either spoilers or have content warnings.

02. [SPOILERS for Over the Hills and Far Away]

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03. [SPOILERS for Pokemon Sun and Moon]

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04. [SPOILERS for Inside]

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05. [SPOILERS for The Girl With All The Gifts]

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06. [SPOILERS for Steven Universe]
[WARNING for suicide]

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07. [WARNING for non-con]

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08. [WARNING for incest]

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09. [WARNING for suicide]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #502.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Excerpt:

Chapter 1: "Inmates Run This Bitch"

Have you ever had a riot?" I ask a recruiter from a prison run by the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA).
"The last riot we had was two years ago," he says over the phone.
"Yeah, but that was with the Puerto Ricans!" says a woman's voice, cutting in. "We got rid of them."
"When can you start?" the man asks.
I tell him I need to think it over.

I take a breath. Am I really going to become a prison guard? Now that it might actually happen, it feels scary and a bit extreme.

I started applying for jobs in private prisons because I wanted to see the inner workings of an industry that holds 131,000 of the nation's 1.6 million prisoners. As a journalist, it's nearly impossible to get an unconstrained look inside our penal system. When prisons do let reporters in, it's usually for carefully managed tours and monitored interviews with inmates. Private prisons are especially secretive. Their records often aren't subject to public access laws; CCA has fought to defeat legislation that would make private prisons subject to the same disclosure rules as their public counterparts. And even if I could get uncensored information from private prison inmates, how would I verify their claims? I keep coming back to this question: Is there any other way to see what really happens inside a private prison?

CCA certainly seemed eager to give me a chance to join its team. Within two weeks of filling out its online application, using my real name and personal information, several CCA prisons contacted me, some multiple times.

They weren't interested in the details of my résumé. They didn't ask about my job history, my current employment with the Foundation for National Progress, the publisher of Mother Jones, or why someone who writes about criminal justice in California would want to move across the country to work in a prison. They didn't even ask about the time I was arrested for shoplifting when I was 19.

When I call Winn Correctional Center in Winnfield, Louisiana, the HR lady who answers is chipper and has a smoky Southern voice. "I should tell you upfront that the job only pays $9 an hour, but the prison is in the middle of a national forest. Do you like to hunt and fish?"

"I like fishing."

"Well, there is plenty of fishing, and people around here like to hunt squirrels. You ever squirrel hunt?"

"No."

"Well, I think you'll like Louisiana. I know it's not a lot of money, but they say you can go from a CO to a warden in just seven years! The CEO of the company started out as a CO"—a corrections officer.

Ultimately, I choose Winn. Not only does Louisiana have the highest incarceration rate in the world—more than 800 prisoners per 100,000 residents—but Winn is the oldest privately operated medium-security prison in the country.

I phone HR and tell her I'll take the job.

"Well, poop can stick!" she says.

I pass the background check within 24 hours.

Edited 2016-08-19 23:44 (UTC)

Private prisons are a scam. They save the taxpayer nothing, and they support draconian laws that lock up people who should be fined and given community service.

So you're against law-and-order policies and things like mandatory minimums and three strikes laws when it comes to the criminal justice system?

Yes. I see them as overly harsh and expensive to enforce. And I'm not convinced they are a deterrent to crime.

What's your position on drug war stuff, if you don't mind me asking?

It's not something I've paid a lot of attention to, as it's not really something that interests me. I will say that several of my classmates who sat through D.A.R.E. with me in fifth grade grew up to be drug users and pushers in adulthood. Apparently, 'just say no' doesn't really work.

Honestly, I find drugs to be abhorrent and disgusting, but I can't say I care if some fool wants to melt their brain with marijuana. If nobody is getting hurt, and I'm not being asked to pay for their rehab, why is it any of my business?

This pretty much. I have no interest in any recreational drugs except moderate drinking. But the war on drugs is expensive and stupid and espouses the philosophy of saving people from themselves.

I admit I'm surprised at you given that you're a conservative. Most conservatives I've known seem to believe in all that stuff, and that prisoners shouldn't have rights. "Make prison so bad they'll never want to go back!" is the driving philosophy. It's weird and disturbingly authoritarian.

[ SECRET POST #3516 ]

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