THE CRUELEST PUNISHMENT

Excerpts from an Article in: The Week Magazine, in the "Last Word" section was the following article:
THE CRUELEST PUNISHMENT
Solitary confinement in Iran nearly broke my spirit, says Shane Bauer; America's prisons are even worse!
By: Shane Bauer, Sarah Shourd and Josh Fattal
Once inside a SHU, work, drug treatment programs, or religious services are not permitted. SHU prisoners are not allowed phone calls (except in approved emergencies) or contact visits. Clocks, photo albums, food condiments containing sugar, playing cards, and chessboards are all banned. they are let out to the dog run, where they exercise for an hour a day, alone. They don't leave the cell to eat. If they ever leave the pod, they have to strip naked, pass their hands through a food slot to be handcuffed, then wait for the door to open and be bellycuffed...
The decision to put a man in solitary indefinitely is made at internal hearings that last, prisoners say, about 20 minutes. They are closed-door affairs. An inmate facing the worst punishment our penal system has to offer short of death can't even have a lawyer in the room. He can't gather or present evidence in his defense. He can't call witnesses. Much of the evidence--anything provided by informants--is confidential and thus impossible to refute....
How does someone get out of the SHU, then? Officially, there are two ways. One is to be declared an "inactive" gang member or associate, which doesn't happen  very often. The other way out is to debrief--to divulge everything an inmate knows about a gang, which a prisoner can do at any time. An average of 108 do it every year, even though among prisoners snitching can carry the death penalty.
More to follow......

THEORETICALY SPEAKING

It is increasingly being acknowledge in prison based penal systems that prison is neither just nor effective as a deterent or a punishment, The high levels of suicide in prison in modern countries are a mute testimony to the fact that death itself is often seen as preferable to the psychological tortues which prison inflict,It would apper however that liberal sensibilities are more comfortable with a form of punishment which leaves no physical marks, and draws no unsightly blood, forgetting that to torture the soul by locking a man up in the company of criminals does far more lasting damage.Neither is incarceration just for there are certain types of man who thrive in prison,and others who suffer immeasureably.The former is likely to learn the crimmal arts while behind bars,while the latter will be permanently trumatised.As for a deterrent value while prison is widely regarded as unpleasant, for certain individuals to have a criminal record is seen as a mark of manhood.And while physical punishment is comprehensible beforehand, the miseries of prison life are known only to those who have exerienced them.These inadequacies in the penal system are one reason why secular countries are experiencing  a rapidly increasing incidence of crime!

Solitary confinement

Mass incarceration defines us as a society.The UNITED STATES has less than 5 percent of the worlds population but imprisons a quater of the worlds inmates.Most of those 2.4 million are black or spanish,One out of every four men are in prison on probation or parole or bound in some other way to the criminal justice system.
Within the institutional culture of the modern prison system, solitary confinement is not considered a radically damaging means of detentionh,Once reserved primarily for violent or disruptive inmates,it has become a magagerial tactic,without standard limits on duration.There are currently more than 80,000 inmates in long term solitary confinement in the U.S Far more than any country in the world.And even more in short term solitary confinement.Prison's do nothing to reform you,to be of any subsequent service to the community. POST  ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE
Security Housing Unit

Many non-profit organizations regularly hire ex-offenders.Try some of these,
*GuideStar                     www.guidestar.org
*Action Without Borders  www.idealist.org
*Foundation Center         www.foundationcenter.org
*Independent Sector        www.independentsector.org
*N C O                            http://nonprofit.about.com
*Nonprofit Jobs               www.opportunityknocks.org
Starting Your Own Business Try some of these sites.
*www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/index.html
*www.sba.gov/services/training/index.html
*www.myownbusiness.org/course sba.html

Prisoners Relief Programs

Prisoners Relief Programs, Ex- OFFENDERS
          What to do?      Who do i talk to?        Where do i go?

Go immediately to the nearest Social Security Office and ask to speak to a counselor so that you can apply for Social Security Innsurance Emergency Supplement Benefits of $1.500.00  Explain that you are emotionally and mentally unprepared to hold a job. Shoe then your Parole or Mandatory Release Papers in order to prove that you are just out of prison. NOTE YOU SHOULD RECEIVE THE CHECK WITHIN 72 HOURS.
wHILE AT THE OFFICE FILL OUT THE NECESSARY FORMS FOR THE $310.00 monthly disability benefit for every month you were incarcerated.
Now go to the nearest Welfare department Office and apply for GENERAL RELIEF. Again show them your Parole of Mandatory Release Papers as proof that you are just out of prison.Tell them you need FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE IMMEDIATELY. A check should be issued to you within TWO [2] HOURS. It should be for approximately,$150.00. Do not forget to get your Food Stamps while you are there. You should receive about $190.00. worth.While you are there be sure to obtain your  MEDICAL CARD for HEALTH PROTECTION BENEFITS. NOTE  THIS CARD CAN BE USED AT ANY DOCTORS OR DENTISTS OFFICE.
                                      DO THIS WITHIN THE NEXT TEN DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
go to the State Rehabilitation Center,where you can apply for various FEDERALLY FUNDED LOANS & GRANTS.
If you want to start a  small business make a list of the approximate cost of all the equipment you will need [tools work clothes etc] and estimate for hoe much operating cash you will need to start up the bussiness UNTILL it begins to make a living for you .They may loan up to $50,000.oo

1. Ninety days before release write a letter to the Social Security Office where you live.They will send you a five quesition application.Fill it out as accurately as possible,and then return it to the S.S Office nearest you.
2. When your application is processed you will get a check for three months totaling $930.00 for the 3 months.
3.You can also call the Food Stamp Office HOT LINE and get $80.00 worth of food stamps when you goto the Department of Social Service. Also you can apply for full Food Stamps Grant.
4.You qualified because you are on S.S.I The Welfare Deptment will automatically send you $220.00 per month for financial assistance and utilities. S.S.I is the same in each state.
a]Go to the Deptartment of Vocational Rehabilityation because you are on S.S.I
b]A convicted felon is a depressed minority. You also qualify for a certain benefit package. The amount of this benefit is $1.900.00 to be used for a down payment on a car./The car must be needed to go back and forth to work.
c]Also you receive a $ 300.00 check for clothing for the job.And another $400.00 Check for street clothes.And finally ,a $400.00 check for tools.These are GRANTS NOT LOANS,so they do not have to be paid back.
5]S.B.A has programs for ex-felons. You are qualified to receive a small Business loan of up to $50.ooo.oo.This loan is only given in the case of business pursuits.Also the SBA WILL PROVIDE PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE TO HELP YOU PLAN EMPLOYMENT.You must be bonded for this loan.The Federal H.C.W. will bond for free, if no other organization will.Because you are an EX-convict,The loan must be repaid to the S.B.A

survival

I felt a tightening in my chest,I knew i have already used up whatever karmic goodwill i had coming to me in these last couple of years,Staying in Montanita was simply tempting FATE.
However urgent a thing is,there comes a point where there are no more places to go.The urgency burns out,and you sit there like you have got all the time in the world,while the world rages on around you.
I should of walked away without sentimentality,from a situation that i knew was unmanagable.That was a basic rule for survival!!!!!!

L.O.V.E

LOVE,That powerful four letter word that is perhaps one of the most misused and misunderstood words in the human language haunts,tantalizes,fills with hope,dashes to despair and dreates the greatest puruit in all of life.In the final analysis,love eludes the hearts and minds of many,leaving them feeling unloved and alone in life.At least,their concept of love has not been fulfilled which causes them to suffer feeling of discontent and an ache of unbearable emptiness.They fail to find satisfaction despite their mad pursuit of the thing they call love. Its seems a cruelly of fate that a quality of life so necessary to happiness as Love should so easily elude us.Ask any brokenhearted lover,or listen to the morning of the pop song artists and you will hear the paininflicted on the human psyche through broken promises of love.
Yet this emotional pain is not limited to failed adult romance.It stalks children ,the elderly, and everyone who experience circumstances that make them feel alone and unloved.
Where does one go to find the love that will satisfy the deepest yearning of the human heart?Are those desires even legitimate,Why do some people seem to have it all together and other feel neglected and lonely even though they enter into relationship of marrige, parenting,friendship.We cannot hope to find answer for the painful question of life without first discovering the source of LOVE.