George's Note: I recently came across this article and was struck by how eloquently it was written on the subject of punishment. John Bundy, no relation to Ted Bundy, speaks of his experience as a lifer who will die in prison - no chance of parole. From what I learned in my three years of counseling inmates, I think the death penalty is the easy way out compared to a life sentence. Bundy was thrown into solitary confinement for his writing this piece - so much for the 1st amendment. Please leave a comment - I would like to hear what you think.
An Inside Look atFlorida
GUEST COLUMNIST
Published: Monday, January 19, 2015 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 8:15 p.m.
An Inside Look at
GUEST COLUMNIST
Published: Monday, January 19, 2015 at 12:01 a.m.
Last Modified: Sunday, January 18, 2015 at 8:15 p.m.
I have been incarcerated in the Florida Department of Corrections for more than two decades and am serving seven life terms, five of which are without possibility of parole. I have witnessed many of the things that were addressed in the article "Group Calls for State Prison System Overall," published in The Ledger on Nov. 14. Prison reform has been a long time coming.
What I am most impassioned
about relates to the statement in the article, "In addition to punishing
inmates, make a concerted effort to rehabilitate them." Though I believe I
understand the intent, I take issue with the language.
You cannot punish inmates and
rehabilitate them at the same time.
A clear distinction must be
made between those who broke the law and have been incarcerated and those who
have been incarcerated and continue to break the law. In the first instance,
the individual has been incarcerated as punishment, separated from society and
its benefits, privileges and freedoms. In the second, the incarcerated
individual continues in his pattern of criminal behavior, undeterred by his
self-inflicted loss.
I have been incarcerated and
separated from society for crimes I committed against society, as punishment. I
get that. For me it means long-term or permanent loss of everything that we
take for granted every day.
I will never own my own
business, earn a paycheck, own or drive a car, own a cell phone, order a pizza,
surf the Internet, eat seafood, go fishing, walk on a beach, own a home, sleep
in my own bed, celebrate Thanksgiving or Christmas with my family, get married,
have an intimate relationship with children and grandchildren.
I am constantly reminded of
these things every day. The world is passing me by. Cell phones and the
Internet did not even exist when I came to prison. My incarceration is the other
death penalty, warehoused for life, sentenced to die in prison. So, I know what
it means to say, "You don't know what you've got till it's gone." And
that is, perhaps, as it should be.
But the idea that I am
incarcerated to be punished implies that you need to do more to me than I have
already done to myself. In fact, it is exactly this ideology that is at the
root of the prevailing mindset within DOC that it is somehow their job, duty
and mission to further "punish inmates," to make the incarcerated miserable.
This goes way beyond
punishment. It is an unjustified contempt and prejudice toward inmates by those
who use their vested authority to oppress and abuse, under the guise of
"corrections" — not too unlike a dictatorship or the plantations of
our shameful past.
Indicative of this mindset is
a statement attributed to one of our heads of security here: "If these
inmates are smiling, then I am not doing my job." It is exactly this
ideology, this mindset, which has led to systemic corruption, mismanagement and
abuse — and has cultivated a culture of violence and callous indifference,
where they feel completely justified in their actions and methodologies, that
the ends justify the means.
Those who propagate and
facilitate this ideology intentionally and maliciously inflict mental and
emotional distress and create a dangerous, volatile and abusive environment for
both inmates and officers alike.
Whatever happened to the
Golden Rule, to treat others as you would have them to treat you? Whatever
happened to ethics, integrity, professionalism and the fact that they have
sworn to uphold the laws and Constitution of this state?
If you want to make the
incarcerated miserable, you need only teach them the value of what they
forfeited, remind them of it often and lead by example. But do not think that
whatever privileges that are extended to me in a prison environment can ever
offset or mitigate what I've done to myself.
Or, that the continued and
ongoing punitive and abusive action, especially when unprovoked, will ever
produce anything other than resentment, anger, fear and disregard for authority.
"If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for
law." Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis wrote in 1928.
It is somewhat a relief that
these issues are finally receiving attention. The cycle of recidivism and
financial burden is directly associated with Florida
An ever larger segment of the
inmate population is facing long-term or indefinite incarceration (the other
death penalty), as well as abuse and violence at the hands of those whose
mission is supposed to be care, custody and control — whose mottos are
"When they succeed, we succeed" and "Changing lives to insure a
safer Florida."
Sadly, history has shown that
in many states prison reform only came on the heels of catastrophic meltdown,
violence and bloodshed. For many it came too late.
Any talk of overhauling or
reforming the Florida prison system must include addressing and rooting out
this deep-seated and misguided mindset of "punishing inmates" and
attempting to make them miserable; incarceration is, by its very nature,
miserable, unnatural and abnormal. In failing to do so, Florida
John Bundy is an inmate at
Avon Park Correctional
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George Mallinckrodt