My deep gratitude goes out to all of you who have supported me in jail. To those who have been answering my phone calls; sending me books, letters, and pictures of cute kittens; putting money on my account to pay for commissary; praying, telling others and telling others to pray: Thank you. I’ve been so cheered and encouraged by all of these things.
I want everyone to know that I’m quite well and have been enjoying my “activist vacation” in some ways – but that’s only because I am in here for a very short while. I urge everyone to remember (as I will better from now on, I promise) those whose freedom has been taken for months and even years because of their part in the fight for justice and liberation.
I believed that the United States criminal justice system was strategically oppressive before I went to jail, but going through the process of getting and staying here has made me seriously question why we allow it. The women in my pod have been good to me, showing me how things are done and making sure all of my needs are met. Not one of them should be locked up in here.
So why do we do it? Why do we elect* judges and magistrates who sentence non-violent people to time in prison? Why do we allow the passage of laws that include overly harsh penalties and target poor people, racial minorities, political dissenters? Why don’t juries refuse to convict people more often? Why don’t more families and friends raise hell when the people they love are locked away? And most perplexingly, why do so many of us, as prisoners, seem to accept their imprisonment as natural, just, as from some moral authority?
I know that there are a lot of answers to these questions, and that some people have more answers to them than I will ever understand, but clearly one of these is that we are all allowing our thoughts and values to be controlled by those in power and assisting our government in oppressing us. The substances and ideas that are most dangerous are those we allow ourselves to internalize. I would say that as Americans we definitely have a “problem with authority.”
p.s. I am doing great in jail really!
*or elect those who appoint
