“For Elaine, the nights were the hardest, when she was locked in her cell, lying on her prison cot in the dark. Sleeping alone felt strange. Growing up, she had always slept with her mother or a sister...In those early months at Bedford, she spent the last hours of every day crying into her pillow.” Also, before arriving at Bedford Hills, Elaine had never been a thief. However, once she was in prison ironically, she became a skilled thief. I see her shoplifting as warranted. The prison doesn’t provide women enough sanitary napkins. She would occasionally smoke smuggled marijuana in the prison yard with fellow inmates. She describes her high as enhancing her focus on the fence that separates her from the outside world. The faint sound of cars passing reminded her that there was lives being lived outside of the walls she’s trapped in ( her “concrete cage”). Getting high in the past had made her laugh a lot and feel cheerful but on the inside now she only felt more depressed and frustrated. When she wasn’t smoking she was still pondering what she had done that deserved a 20-to-life sentence in a maximum security prison. Her “crime” can’t even be compared to the ones committed by her fellow inmates.
I had a strong emotional response to Elaine’s early experiences in prison. Last week I went to the Norfolk County Correctional--medium security prison on a field trip. After talking with some of the inmates, I realized how rigid it is in prison. You have to wake up at a certain time everyday. If you oversleep you get a “ticket”. You are trapped in this building for an insane amount of time. As my classmates and I got up to leave the prison and the inmates got up to return to their cells or prison jobs, it hit me how fortunate I am to have the freedom to have control over my life. I’m very aware of that now. So I have empathy for Elaine during those long tearful nights. I was also angered to read that Elaine and the other inmates aren’t provided with enough sanitary resources. I mean, if you have to steal in order to keep your personal hygiene at a healthy level, than that’s not fair treatment. It’s dehumanizing in a sense. To cage people up and not provide them with vital sanitary items.
I wonder why we (in the US) do prison so poorly. Perhaps there's no incentive, and incentive seems to be the driving force in much government decision-making. Politicians who advocate for better treatment of prisoners are considered "soft on crime" and have trouble getting re-elected.
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