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NEWS & LETTERS, March 2002
Work in chains
Oakland, Cal.—We hear from
many prisoners how much they appreciate the opportunity to be productive, to
make something, to be useful. We’ve heard stories from prisoners about going
out on road clean-up crews while in jail and choosing to stay in 100-degree heat
even without water, just to be out of the cells and doing something. We heard
from a couple of women prisoners that their gardening jobs were the one thing
that made their time a little more bearable. Making things grow let them see
their activity become objective, in a real sense changing their world. On the other hand, work in
prison is an especially alienating activity. The actual work conditions are so
punitive and vengeful that many jobs seem more like torture. For example, one
woman prisoner was assigned kitchen duties. She had to carry big, heavy, hot
pans of grits from the oven to the serving area. When she asked for potholders,
she was given one. When she pointed out that the
pans were too big to carry in one hand, that she needed another one that would
cover her forearms, she was written up for disobeying orders. She suffered burns
on both arms. The joy of work is that you
feel useful helping somebody. Prisoners justifiably feel proud of working making
eyeglasses or dentures. The glasses and dentures help other women prisoners see
and eat. But even this, which should be experienced as a benefit from
prisoners’ own activity, gets spoiled by the prison authorities who put
themselves in the middle. Medical neglect is a part of
women prisoners’ lives. It also relates to the question of work in prison. One
woman was told that the prison would not fill a cavity in her tooth. Instead,
they would wait until her tooth rotted out and remove it. Once she had no more
than seven teeth left, they would prescribe dentures. Thus even work to help
other women prisoners becomes abuse
because the women themselves don't determine when to provide this help. As with every other wrong in
society, prison magnifies the contradiction experienced in work. Work,
especially in cooperation with others, is what most people want to contribute.
Lack of control over what you actually do transforms work into a tool of
oppression instead. —Urszula Wislanka |
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