Prison Writing :: essays research papers

The bleak prison world portrayed by George Jackson in his letter to Fay Stender, his attorney, develops into a concentrated and condensed view of American society. This microcosm evolves from faults within the socio-political structure of the state. Jackson draws similarities between the construct of American and prison life, which harmonised the unrest of black Americans during an epoch of the civil right movement. The links drawn add a nonher dimension to the movement and the barbaric nature of American politics.To move a trend from Jacksons letter, I would like to quote something that I believe is essential to Jacksons view of the prison schemeI feel like an foreign in here because this whole prison system is created in such a way as to cut me off from my culture, my religion. There is no way I can describe the effect it has on me to be forcefully separated from my very way of life. The values of the white man, I do not understand. I dont understand a culture that believes tha t it is good to fight one another for wealth, for material things These things I dont understand, precisely it is the way of white man, and it is the way these prisoners argon taught to be so that they can function properly in the white mans society when they are released. This is part of an affidavit written to congress by a Native American called Timothy Reed, also known as Little Rock. The prison system is designed to remove ones identity to replace it with an American one. I have often thought that being American is more kindred to a religion than a nationality. The nations zealous guarding of their identity condemns any notion outside their own. That a nation so young and bastardize could be so xenophobic is horrifically ironic considering Americas history. And it is this history that Jackson considers important to understanding why racism exists at the prison with special prominence and goes on to answer the larger question of why racism exists in American society with par ticular prominence, tied into history. That those who inhabit the prison and render off its existence are historical products, fixes on an evolution of America which not only creates the need for such prisons, but also creates a micro-society in its image. The perpetuation of the cruelty of American history exists inside the prison walls, where overt racism exists unchecked.