Last year, The Yale Law Journal asked prisoners throughout the United States to submit essays on their perspective about how the law affects their lives.
The editors said they received “about 1,500 responses from people all across the United States—men and women, adults and juveniles, former petty offenders and current death-row inmates.”
The question, “what does fair treatment look like in prison” generated three outstanding essays: The Prison Rape Elimination Act, The Meaning of Imprisonment, and Solano Justice.
Aaron Lowers, an inmate at Solano State prison, wrote about the arcane disciplinary concept called constructive possession, used by California prison officials.
Lowers gives the following scenario: “…if two men are housed in the same prison cell, where a cell phone is discovered, both men can, and often are, found guilty of possessing the contraband and both suffer the consequences.”
Lowers alludes that “this tactic has evolved into a coercive device designed to force inmates to police themselves” putting inmates in “the precarious position of being their brother’s keepers.”
The ever-changing definition, plus the sheer amount of contraband found inside the prisons create extreme stress for inmates, especially those who must appear before parole boards in order to earn their release, Lowers argues.
His essay is sound, uses easy to understand language and supports an argument to end the practice of constructive possession by prison officials.
Ernie Drain’s introduction to The Meaning of Imprisonment is power packed as he writes, “Being incarcerated in prison means tucking your life into your back pocket for a while.”
Drain’s essay smartly describes what it means to be locked up, pointing to the little boring things people do while biding their time, as well as the “imagined authority and real tyranny, unnerving ethos and unavoidable conflict. It’s a lesson learned, never to be forgotten,” concludes Drain.
Elizabeth A. Reid, who attended Green River Community College, wrote about holding prison guards accountable for raping inmates.
Reid approaches this sensitive subject from a legal perspective as her essay reads like a court document.
The Prison Rape Elimination Act contains “graphic” details of what these violated women have been subjected to, as well as the “despicable” behavior of prison administrators who are ironically tasked with keeping the public safe from crime.
Editors of The Yale Law Journal said, “People who are incarcerated offer a unique perspective on the law. Having broken it, they now live in an environment pervaded by it. But only rarely, if ever, do scholars, lawyers, and policymakers hear directly from them about it.”
The May 2013, Volume 122, Number 7 edition of The Yale Law Journal offered inmates a voice in one of the most prodigious publications in the world.
