January 3, 2009
Posted by David Rothenberg on Saturday, January 10, 2009
In the last few months, we have taken the play The Castle to numerous correctional facilities, including Green Haven, Arthur Kill, and Queensboro, and to Riker’s Island on three separate occasions. We have met with hundreds of incarcerated men and women – after performances – and are impressed by how many listen to this station. Some have suggested that WBAI is their lifeline to the free world, gaining information and inspiration that is lacking in the mainstream media and certainly not in evidence where they are incarcerated.
But it is what they don’t say that has impressed me the most. So many people in prison are hungry for change…for a new direction in their life. Sadly, they are enmeshed in a negative atmosphere which offers little guidance for survival on the outside. In fact, the system is structured for their return to prison. It is no cliché that most men upon leaving prison hear a guard say “See you back in six months” or “We’ll hold your place for you.” Recidivism is expected, predicted…almost encouraged.
Certainly the public buys into this…and, why not? Look at what they see on TV. Programs like Lock-up, Jail, Prison Break, The O.C., CSI, Law and Order, Bounty Hunter, Cops…and this week it was proudly announced in the Arts section of the Times that Phoenix, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, the much heralded punishment king, will be hosting his own reality show.
The prison faces on TV are geared to frighten the public. Programs like Lockup are all about knife-fights and being thrown into isolation. Prison Break is about…well it’s about prison breaks. Cops is about chasing down offenders.
What is not shown on TV are the faces we saw in Green Haven and Arthur Kill hoping, searching, and pleading for something else in their lives. How poignant that moment during a Q&A following an in-prison performance of The Castle when a man told us that he was 40 years old and has been in and out of institutions since he was 10. He shouted “I want change! But what is it and how do I find it?”
That’s a basic question, rarely addressed in prison. In front of his peers that man revealed vulnerability almost taboo in any adult male prison setting. And yet, we are hearing variations of that cry over and over when the four cast-members of The Castle conclude their stories. We receive letters asking for directions and guidance. They write to us that in the play they were hearing their own story and it resonated with hope and promise…almost subversive concepts in America’s penalogy.
Sadly, this is not a story that the media embraces. The crime programs on TV are sponsored by the people who are the merchants which keeps the prison functioning and the architects and construction companies which want tougher drug laws so they can build and supply more prisons. It is about profits not people, and has nothing to do with crime reduction or street safety.
One of the things we have learned by doing the play The Castle is that there are people in the system who don’t want change in the lives of inmates. They have an investment in selling fear. And, of course, there are some who genuinely want the system to be more responsive to the cries for help.
Hope within the criminal justice structure is not a saleable commodity with the media. Their mantra – If it bleeds, it leads – is at once dishonest and destructive.
Quite frankly, if I stayed home and watched television day and night, I would be afraid to step foot out of the house because that little tube conveys the impression that crime is ubiquitous.
Listen, I don’t underestimate the fact that there is crime…and people must make choices about when and where they go. But that is only a part of the story. By denying the existence of change we lessen the opportunity to create an environment for it. It will take some courageous political leadership…men and women who understand that getting tough on crime is not nearly as effective as getting smart about crime.
Change is eternally possible.
Each Saturday morning I sit here facing my colleague Angel Ramos who came to the castle after serving 30 years in the New York prison system. It was either a shelter or the castle and fortunately for him and for us it was the latter. He now works as a counselor; he appears each week off-Broadway in The Castle – a role he assumed one year to the day after concluding his time in Attica. Wouldn’t you think the local media with all their print about the people in show business would be slightly curious? But Angel, and many men and women, who have transformed their lives, inspire me each day. There are many Angels currently locked up and many will become productive and involved citizens, flying below the radar, defying all the negative expectations and obstructions placed before them.
The first step in affecting change is an informed and enlightened constituency…a public that leads the leaders. The ball is in your court.
I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb.
But it is what they don’t say that has impressed me the most. So many people in prison are hungry for change…for a new direction in their life. Sadly, they are enmeshed in a negative atmosphere which offers little guidance for survival on the outside. In fact, the system is structured for their return to prison. It is no cliché that most men upon leaving prison hear a guard say “See you back in six months” or “We’ll hold your place for you.” Recidivism is expected, predicted…almost encouraged.
Certainly the public buys into this…and, why not? Look at what they see on TV. Programs like Lock-up, Jail, Prison Break, The O.C., CSI, Law and Order, Bounty Hunter, Cops…and this week it was proudly announced in the Arts section of the Times that Phoenix, Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, the much heralded punishment king, will be hosting his own reality show.
The prison faces on TV are geared to frighten the public. Programs like Lockup are all about knife-fights and being thrown into isolation. Prison Break is about…well it’s about prison breaks. Cops is about chasing down offenders.
What is not shown on TV are the faces we saw in Green Haven and Arthur Kill hoping, searching, and pleading for something else in their lives. How poignant that moment during a Q&A following an in-prison performance of The Castle when a man told us that he was 40 years old and has been in and out of institutions since he was 10. He shouted “I want change! But what is it and how do I find it?”
That’s a basic question, rarely addressed in prison. In front of his peers that man revealed vulnerability almost taboo in any adult male prison setting. And yet, we are hearing variations of that cry over and over when the four cast-members of The Castle conclude their stories. We receive letters asking for directions and guidance. They write to us that in the play they were hearing their own story and it resonated with hope and promise…almost subversive concepts in America’s penalogy.
Sadly, this is not a story that the media embraces. The crime programs on TV are sponsored by the people who are the merchants which keeps the prison functioning and the architects and construction companies which want tougher drug laws so they can build and supply more prisons. It is about profits not people, and has nothing to do with crime reduction or street safety.
One of the things we have learned by doing the play The Castle is that there are people in the system who don’t want change in the lives of inmates. They have an investment in selling fear. And, of course, there are some who genuinely want the system to be more responsive to the cries for help.
Hope within the criminal justice structure is not a saleable commodity with the media. Their mantra – If it bleeds, it leads – is at once dishonest and destructive.
Quite frankly, if I stayed home and watched television day and night, I would be afraid to step foot out of the house because that little tube conveys the impression that crime is ubiquitous.
Listen, I don’t underestimate the fact that there is crime…and people must make choices about when and where they go. But that is only a part of the story. By denying the existence of change we lessen the opportunity to create an environment for it. It will take some courageous political leadership…men and women who understand that getting tough on crime is not nearly as effective as getting smart about crime.
Change is eternally possible.
Each Saturday morning I sit here facing my colleague Angel Ramos who came to the castle after serving 30 years in the New York prison system. It was either a shelter or the castle and fortunately for him and for us it was the latter. He now works as a counselor; he appears each week off-Broadway in The Castle – a role he assumed one year to the day after concluding his time in Attica. Wouldn’t you think the local media with all their print about the people in show business would be slightly curious? But Angel, and many men and women, who have transformed their lives, inspire me each day. There are many Angels currently locked up and many will become productive and involved citizens, flying below the radar, defying all the negative expectations and obstructions placed before them.
The first step in affecting change is an informed and enlightened constituency…a public that leads the leaders. The ball is in your court.
I’m David Rothenberg…out on a limb.
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