From Dragonfly: A Human Zoo

Yesterday, I was reading "Vanishing Acts" by Jodi Picoult. I was caught by a metaphor she used, that I've often used since being in here --- "a human zoo..." On page 187, Piccoult's character states:

"We walk down the hallway that opens into a large, two-tiered room... What it resembles - what jail always resembles - is a human zoo. The animals are busy doing their own thing - sleeping, eating, socializing. Some of them notice me, some of them choose not to. It's really the only power they have left."

How true that statement is. A couple weeks ago, a group of students from a local university, took a tour of the prison, including our unit. There they were, standing in a group, staring in one of our rooms. They didn't talk to the woman who was laying on her bed - they just stared. I happened to walk by them. Some watched me walk - what were they thinking? Were they wondering what I'd done to get in here? Were they afraid I might be violent? I remember visiting a couple prisons/jails during my undergrad and law school experiences. I was them - I just stared as well. I'd always visited male institutions, and I was scared of the men in cages.

How horrible it is that we are equal to animals at a zoo. There is no respect for us as individuals. Our animal name must be deviant, criminally, opportunistic felon. While we are in there, we are no longer human.

Interestingly, another book that a friend is reading had quite a different paragraph about prisons:

"The American prison system illustrates the philosophical and practical difference between the choice to perceive sin or to perceive error. We see criminals as guilty and seek to punish them. But whatever we do to others, we are doing to ourselves. Statistics painfully prove that our prisons are schools for crime; a vast number of crimes are committed by people who have already spent time in prison. In punishing others, we end up punishing ourselves. Does that mean we're to forgive a rapist, tell him we know he just had a bad day and send him home? Of course not. We're to ask for a miracle. A miracle here would be a shift from perceiving prisons as houses of punishment to perceiving them as houses of rehabilitation. When we consciously change their purpose from FEAR to LOVE, we release infinite possibilities of healing." (A Return to Love by Marianna Williamson, pg. 99).

How different would our prisons look if any of what she says reform should do occurred. Would we no longer be zoo animals, but instead people trying to heal? Would everyone be appropriate for some services, instead of just those with drug/alcohol backgrounds? It was decades ago that our prison system changed from the ideal of rehabilitation to specifically punishment. Yet, how are we to rejoin society, if nothing in us has changed.

I can tell you that just one week in this place would have been enough punishment for many of the people I know. What they really need is help - help with their self-esteem, help with getting over abusive pasts, help with addiction, help with getting a foot up in life. Reform needs to happen. We should not allow our jails and prisons to just be human zoos.