The Douchebag Bible (36 page)

crime in the nation while significantly reducing its jail and prison

populations. Connecticut, New Jersey, Ohio, and Massachusetts

have also reduced their prison populations during the same time

that crime rates were declining.

The next question on our agenda is why are recidivism

rates so abysmally and staggeringly high? First of all, let's take a

look at exactly how high these rates are:

Of the 272,111 persons released from prisons in 15 States

in 1994, an estimated 67.5% were rearrested for a felony or

serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.9% were reconvicted,

and 25.4% resentenced to prison for a new crime.

These are inexcusably bad results and when compared to

the recidivism rates of most countries. Sweden, for instance, has

a recidivism rate of only 22%! Could it be that they're doing

something right and that we're doing something wrong?

Instead of seeking to punish, Swedish prisons seek to

reform. Psychologists have told us for years that punishment is

ineffective as a deterrent, but we as a nation continue to think we

know better than what mere scientists have to say! We've got

something better than science—we've got a gut instinct, a whole

lot of hatred and a serious lack of empathy for our fellow man. We

don't care that punishment is ineffective, because it feels so

goddamn good. Vengeance is a lot more fun than being rational

and trying to come up with humane solutions that treat our

prisoners as human beings with inherent dignity who are no less

human than us regardless of their wrong-doing.

Now, an estimated 11.9 percent of black men were in

prison or jails, compared with 3.9 percent of Hispanic males and

1.7 percent of white males. The prison population in America

contains many blacks and quite a few Hispanics and even a pretty

decent number of white people.

These people are the new slaves in America, and it’s especially sad

in the instance of the blacks, who have already gone through so

much. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States

Constitution, which ended one form of slavery, also codified

another. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude,
except as a

punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been

duly convicted
, shall exist within the United States, or any place

subject to their jurisdiction.”

Prison is big business here in America. Prisoners are

forced to manufacture everything from body armor for the

military to the oven in your house. 38 Ever called a customer

service representative for a big corporation that you had dealings

with? You might have been talking to a convict. Prisons in several

state contain call centers that handle calls for many big

38 According to the Left Business Observer, the federal prison industry produces

100% of all military helmets, ammunition belts, bullet-proof vests, ID tags, shirts,

pants, tents, bags, and canteens. Along with war supplies, prison workers supply

98% of the entire market for equipment assembly services; 93% of paints and

paintbrushes; 92% of stove assembly; 46% of body armor; 36% of home

appliances; 30% of headphones/microphones/speakers; and 21% of office

furniture. Airplane parts, medical supplies, and much more: prisoners are even

raising seeing-eye dogs for blind people.

SOURCE: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/2024/1/124/

companies39.

Aside from being a cheap source of labor for big companies,

the increasing prison population also gives politicians an

opportunity to funnel tax dollars into the pockets of the

contractors who build the prisons that exist to house the influx of

new inmates.

According to cultural historian H. Bruce Franklin, “in the

typical American prison, designed and run to maximize

degradation, brutalization, and punishment, overt torture is the

norm. Beatings, electric shock, prolonged exposure to heat and

even immersion in scalding water, sodomy with riot batons,

nightsticks, flashlights, and broom handles, shackled prisoners

forced to lie in their own excrement for hours or even days,

months of solitary confinement, rape and murder by guards or

prisoners instructed by guards—all are everyday occurrences in

the American prison system.”40

I was skeptical of these claims myself at first, so I did a bit

more digging and discovered that the internet is a veritable

treasure trove of sites detailing countless specific instances of the

abuse of power by guards against inmates and by inmates against

one another with either the encouragement or apathy of the

guards. I suggest that anyone wanting to learn more about this

type the words “American prison torture” into
Google
and start

clicking links.

39 http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/employment/2004-07-06-call-

center_x.htm

40http://www.historiansagainstwar.org/resources/torture/brucefranklin.html#N_4_

So, if American prisoners are mostly minorities who are

mostly poor and they are forced into labor and tortured by

sadistic guards—then I can’t draw any conclusion other than that

these people are slaves and we are all complicit in their slavery.

Right now, as you read this sentence, a little boy is being

born in a big ugly building with a name like “Community

Hospital.” His mother is a drug addict of some sort and he will be

born with withdrawals. He will grow up without a father and with

a mother more interested in scoring drugs than raising him. The

schools he attends will be under-funded and he will most likely

drop out. He is likely to join a gang. He is likely to go to jail. He is

likely to assemble ovens or body armor for large corporations

against his will.

There is a little boy being born right now that has a good

chance of becoming a slave whose labor you may one day exploit.

He’s taking his first breath of this worlds air and he’s cold and

naked and he has no awareness yet of any of this.

If you find his fate tragic, don’t. It hasn’t happened yet—

and maybe under your watch and mine, it won’t have to. Demand

from your politicians that our prisons be reformed and our

schools along with them. Don’t settle for vague promises of some

nebulous coming greatness, but instead make them give you

specific promises. Talk to your friends and family about this issue

and if they don’t give a fuck out of the goodness in their hearts

than guilt them into it by mercilessly assaulting their character.

Bully them into faking compassion. Sometimes doing the right