inconsistencies...

I learned something… interesting regarding prison, or at least regarding Metro. When a woman is admitted into Metro, her race is marked as “white” or “black.” That’s it. If she’s Hispanic, she’s “black.” If she’s Native American, she’s “black.” If she’s Asian or Latina or anything that isn’t pasty white Caucasian, she’s listed as being “black.” In other words, you’re either white or you’re not white, and the prison doesn’t really care to know anything further.

I was shocked to learn this; absolutely shocked. First of all, this means any statistics you write about the number of black people in prison is completely messed up – not that most statistics are ever that reliable, but still! Also, I couldn’t believe this happens at Metro, the diagnostics facility for all women prisoners in Georgia. Months and months are spent creating a file for each woman, and it’s filled with every single detail they can come up with throughout all the testing. Why on earth they wouldn’t have more than two choices for race boggles my mind to no end. It disgusts me, to be perfectly honest. It makes it sound like white people are all that matter.

Today I introduced myself to the F Building counselor, and as I made my way through the ranges, I decided to ask the women their opinions of her. Not one of them had anything good or positive to say. From what I gathered, the building’s counselor rarely has time to see anyone, and I can understand that she’s the counselor for the entire building, while houses over 100 women, but I was also told that when one of the women is actually able to get some time with her, she’s not very helpful and usually doesn’t have any answers. I also heard from more than one person that this counselor isn’t compassionate at all and doesn’t seem to care about the women. This strikes me as odd, considering she’s a counselor – isn’t she supposed to want to help people? Why else would she be a counselor? Some of the women do have a mental health counselor as well that they can turn to for help and advice, but only those with high enough mental issues are given one. For the rest, all they have is the building counselor. That’s one of the reasons so many of the women seem grateful to have the chaplains to go to.

I can’t remember if I’ve already talked about the ridiculous dress code or not, so forgive me if I have, and please feel free to skip over this part. I’m talking about the dress code for staff members. There are several things that are just not allowed, and I can understand that – we’re in professional roles and need to dress accordingly. However… for some reason, at some point in time the rule was made that we’re not allowed to wear capris. We are, on the other hand, allowed to wear skirts. So while we can’t show just our ankles and maybe part of our shins, we can show our entire leg up to the knee. Someone explain that logic to me, please. I won’t complain about the skirts – it’s been really hot here, and I’m glad to be able to wear them. I just don’t understand why we can’t wear nice, dressy capris.

There are just so many inconsistencies in the system, it’s almost laughable. But it isn’t, because one of those inconsistencies is how some of the officers treat some of the women. I have witnessed officers yelling at women for seemingly no reason, and of course I’m just seeing my one-week perspective, but I don’t know… sometimes it really does seem that some of the women in particular are given a harder time than others by some of the officers. One woman that I talked to this afternoon has spent time in all three of the women’s prisons in Georgia, and she told me that Metro is the worst as far as inconsistencies go. I was glad to hear that the other two prisons are more consistent, but I was also sad to know that Metro is so bad in comparison. No wonder many of the women hope to be transferred.

Before I end this post, I’d just like to thank those of you who have left comments. I’ve really enjoyed reading them, and I always look forward to new ones. I’m happy to know that some of you are enjoying reading this, or that you’re at least finding it interesting enough. I believe I made the settings so anyone can leave a comment without having to create a profile or have an existing one, so feel free to leave comments if you like. And now, I’m off to bed; it’s been a long day, and I need to sleep so I can do it all again tomorrow.