About 20 years ago, I took a tour of San Quentin Prison and interviewed three inmates on death row. It’s something I will never forget. I had never been in a prison before. And this is what they tell you just before going inside. “If you are taken hostage, we will negotiate for your release, but we will not exchange prisoners for you.” It was at that point that I realized this is SERIOUS business. The first place we went was the exercise yard. I knew that prisons are segregated. But even so it’s jarring to actually see it in person. All the whites were in one area. The blacks were in another area. And the Mexican Americans were in a third area. We then went inside and I saw the cells. At the time there was an issue with overcrowding. They were putting two people in cells designed for just one person. As you can see in the pictures, those cells were so tiny that the inmates had to turn sideways to walk past each other. There is no way I could handle that. I would get too claustrophobic. We then went to the death row visiting area. I actually thought I was in the wrong location, because the people inside didn’t look like “killers” to me. I asked the correctional officer: “Is this really the death row visiting area?” He assured me it was. He said: “Yup, they’re all killers.” It was then that I realized that I had a stereotype of what a killer “should” look like. Someone with bulging muscles, tattoos, and a hard, tough look. But as I recall, none of them looked like that. They all looked very average. Like a cross section of society. One of the guys I was interviewing asked me to bring a lot of change. I asked why. He said: Because they have vending machines in there with chips and candy and soda and thats the only place where I can get those things. So the first thing we did when I got there was go over to the vending machines. I tried to hand him the money. But he said: “No. We’re not allowed to handle money. You have to put it in, and then I can push the buttons.” It was bizarre. After the interviews were over, I was a little behind schedule and was running back to my car. That’s when I heard someone yell: “HEY YOU STOP RUNNING!” I stopped and turned around and said: “Is there a problem?” And he said: “The guards get very nervous when they see someone running.” Needless to say I walked the rest of the way to my car. The one thing about prison that really stuck with me is this: You don’t realize how free you are until you are around people who aren’t free. I can go left. I can go right. I can eat what I want. I can go to bed when I want. But then have to follow orders. All day, every day, they are told what to do. That is not a life I ever want to experience.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:09:24 +0000
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