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 era of the civil right movement. The links drawn add another dimension to the movement and the barbaric nature of American politics. To move away from Jackson’s letter, I would like to quote something that I believe is essential to Jackson’s view of the prison system: I feel like an alien 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 don’t understand a culture that believes that it is good to fight one another for wealth, for material things†¦ These things I don’t understand, but it is the way of white man, and it is the way these prisoners are taught to be so that they can function properly in the white man’s 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 one’s identity to replace it with an ‘American’ one. I have often thought that being American is more akin to a religion than a nationality. The nation’s zealous guarding of their identity condemns any notion outside their own. That a nation so young and bastardised could be so xenophobic is horrifically ironic considering America’s history. And it is this history that Jackson considers important to understanding ‘why racism exists at the prison with â€Å"particular prominence†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ and goes on to answer ‘the larger question of why racism exists in [American] society with â€Å"particular prominence†, tied into history’. That ‘those who inhabit [the prison] and feed off its existence are historical products’, fixes on an evolution of America whic h 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.