The power of the pen inside American prisons is often underestimated

This past year has seen two of the largest American prisoner protests of all times. 

The biggest, held by inmates in 24 states in September on the 45th anniversary of the Attica prison uprising, staged a work stoppage to draw attention to “modern-day slavery” in America’s prisons. 

{mosads}The next largest, just a few weeks ago, prisoners rose up against Aramark — one of the nation’s largest for-profit providers of prison food — over their many reported abuses. The U.S. has the highest rate of incarceration of any country in the world, making criminal justice a favorite topic of conversation in the media.

When it comes to the point of view from the prisoner’s side of the wall, however, it is most often tied to a negative action — a riot, a violent uprising, a hostage situation, an escape, a prison strike.

Prisoners watch the news, read the newspapers, and see articles written on the place they live. For them, it’s a surreal, and often frustrating, experience learning how the world perceives them and criminal justice matters that affect them. 

For them, it’s as if they are learning “alternative facts” as they read sanitized or funhouse-mirror versions of their world. 

“The criminal justice system is in constant need of repair,” says Michael T., a prisoner serving a life sentence in Illinois. “But it seems like they’re trying to invent a fix for something without ever hearing from the end user, us prisoners, to understand what the real problems are.”

For some inmates, the inadequacy of reporting, as they see it, evokes a passion to want to share with outside society what life behind bars is truly like, the sorts of things that they must endure, and how policy considerations that the news frequently reports on would impact them. They want to use these same media to set the record straight, but they if they take action, they end up using something far more controversial.

“The pen is far mightier than the sword in today’s media-driven world,” acknowledges Christian L., an Oregon prisoner who regularly helps other inmates to share their inside voice with blog sites on the outside. “But prisoners feel forced to pick up swords when they feel that no one will listen to them by any other method.”

Although prisoners have a unique and valid viewpoint, and a First Amendment right to express it, circumstances — the walls surrounding them, the limitations of their education, stereotypes and politics — tend to limit the volume and effectiveness of their voice.

The National Institute for Literacy, for example, cites that most prisoners have had less than six years of education prior to entering prison. It has been estimated that many of the nation’s inmates cannot write a letter, much less articulate their beliefs on a given subject in writing. Only a minority have the skill set required to vocalize their beliefs in a way that would be acceptable for publication in any outlet that would reach the masses.

But that minority is available right now, ready to fill in the blank of that missing voice and paint vivid colors to the dark monochromatic scene that most of us envision prison to be.

How much more effective would it have been, for instance, if a well-spoken prisoner from the last prisoner protest could have instead told us in a well-placed editorial about the maggots and rocks in the Aramark food they were given to eat, and the sexual harassment of the prisoners by the employees of the ones providing that food? 

Finding a better resolution for injustice behind bars is really only part of the point, however. 

Letting prisoners speak will create in-roads towards a more well-rounded dialog that provides for better understanding of concerns on both sides of the prison walls and long-lasting solutions to criminal justice matters in this country. 

Perhaps even more vitally, though, allowing prisoners to use their voice gives them a purpose that is seldom reached in a prison setting. Anyone living with a sense of purpose thrives. But this is especially so with prisoners. And with recidivism rates in this country standing at around 65 percent, according to Bureau of Justice Statistics, giving prisoners something positive to focus on can have a tremendously positive influence on prisoner reintegration, and, hence, on society.

Allowing prisoners to assert a strong objection through organized demonstration to policies or injustice can be impactful. This is also a right. But allowing them to let their passion over the same injustice bleed onto the printed page for the world to see precisely what is being protested can be the key that opens the door to something truly constructive… for both the writer and for those who would take the opportunity to read their fresh perspective, and perhaps for our society.

Bianca Clark is the executive director at Prison Lives, a 501(C)(3) non-profit organization established to educate and enable prisoners to be productive individuals while incarcerated for a positive existence both inside and outside of prison life.

The views expressed by contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.