Your first day of prison is your last day of being human

by Noble Brown

Your first day of prison is your last day of being human. Your life is no longer yours. You are now state property. You BELONG to them now, and they hate you. They don’t recognize your humanity or dignity.

Good-News-Bad-News-art-by-Armando-Rodriguez-2137057-Napa-State-Hospital-2100-Napa-Vallejo-Hwy-Napa-CA-94558-web-248x300, Your first day of prison is your last day of being human, Abolition Now!
“Hope, No Hope” – Art by Armando Rodriguez, 2137057, Napa State Hospital, 2100 Napa Vallejo Hwy, Napa CA 94558

You’re locked in crowded holding pens, forced to piss and shit without modesty. You’re stripped butt naked in front of everyone else and forced to show the guard your asshole.

You’re shackled, hands and feet, to others like a human centipede of anguish and hopelessness. You no longer have a name but you’re given a number, a catalog number.

You no longer have any rights. If you fight, you find yourself in a prison within a prison. If you are lucky, you might see one hour of daylight in a day, and that experience is tempered by the fact that you are stuck in a 4-foot-by-4-foot wire cage pacing around like an animal.

You’re given a space with four walls the size of a small bathroom. The toilet is right next to the head of the bed. Phone calls home are price gouged. A five-minute phone call can cost $15 or $20 because the company that holds exclusive rights to prison phone calls is owned by the senator’s wife.

We are intentionally shipped to institutions across the state to make it more difficult for us to stay in contact with our families. We lose everything. Everything that connects us to our humanity and society.

We work and toil for pennies on the dollar while making millions for the corporations that house us. It’s a business – so these companies lobby your politicians to fill their cells via laws like mandatory minimums. They are even promised a minimum number of convictions.

Your first day of prison is your last day of being human. Your life is no longer yours. You are now state property. You BELONG to them now, and they hate you. They don’t recognize your humanity or dignity.

Whenever you get out, if you do, you are put on parole and you still have zero rights. Your parole officer doesn’t even need a warrant to search your living space.

There is no burden of proof to send you back to prison for violating parole conditions. A parole officer can just send you back for anything. Your limited freedom is in constant jeopardy. Every night you go to sleep with the stress that you could go back anytime, for any reason.

Whenever you get out, if you do, you are put on parole and you still have zero rights.

Society hates you and fears you. They don’t want to hire you. You are also an insurance liability.

We don’t live in your world of comparative freedom. We don’t exist to you and when you do see us, we still aren’t human or deserving of human dignity. When failing politicians need a public boost, they go after prisoners, and that’s always a win win because liberals and conservatives are united in our denigration.

We don’t live in your world of comparative freedom. We don’t exist to you and when you do see us, we still aren’t human or deserving of human dignity.

We are the most wretched and the most betrayed. We will rise … And it will be ugly for those that have profited off of our subjugation, dehumanization and exploitation.

Noble Brown can be reached on Facebook or at Noblebrown80@gmail.com.