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Criminal
Injustice System / Social Issues
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Walking the Line (again)
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by
Joe Power
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It isn't nice to block the doorway
It isn't nice to go to jail
There are nicer ways to do it
But the nice ways always fail
It isn't nice, it isn't nice
You told us once, you told us twice
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.
It isn't nice to carry banners
Or to sit in on the floor
Or to shout our cry of Freedom
At the hotel and the store
It isn't nice, it isn't nice
You told us once, you told us twice
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.
We have tried negotiations
And the three-man picket line,
Mr. Charlie didn't see us
And he might as well be blind.
Now our new ways aren't nice
When we deal with men of ice,
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.
How about those years of lynchings
And they shot in Evers' back?
Did you say it wasn't proper?
Did you stand out on the track?
You were quiet just like mice
Now you say we aren't nice
But if that is Freedom's price
We don't mind.
It isn't nice to block the doorway
by Malvina Reynolds
MANY YEARS AGO
a few brave members of NAMBLA had the audacity to demonstrate in front
of Bridgewater State Hospital, a “psychiatric” prison in Bridgewater
Massachussetts. The demonstrators marched with signs denouncing
the treatment of men being held for non-violent and consensual
relationships deemed beyond the pale by the state. Such a protest was
virtually unprecedented at the time and the shock value helped to focus
a lot of attention on the message that true love should not be a
crime. Most of the men being held were released. The
injustice against them was so great that it could not stand the light
of day. This was one of NAMBLA’s proudest moments.
A few months ago, a coalition of family, friends and activists from a
variety of groups(1) – including several NAMBLA members – demonstrated
in front of Coalinga State Hospital in California. They were there to
protest the subhuman treatment of men held for years – or even decades
– beyond the ends of their sentences until they can prove to the state
not that they are no longer dangerous (if they ever were), but that
they now thoroughly embrace the state’s beliefs as to what forms of
sexuality are acceptable. In short, these men are thoughtcriminals and
we were there to let them know they were not forgotten and to let the
state know it has no right to criminalize thoughts and feelings. This
was another proud moment for all who participated.
While still uncommon, such a protest is not so unprecedented anymore
and is part of a growing resistance to this unconstitutional and
unconscionable pandering by politicians to the public’s irrational
fears(2) – fears they have fanned for their own advantage.
To understand what drove us to protest, you need to know something
about this West Coast Gulag.
Coalinga State Hospital (hereafter, CSH) is an incredible boondoggle.
Costing over $388 Million to construct, the 1,500-bed facility is the
largest sex offender civil commitment lockup in the US. Currently about
700 men are held there. Thanks to the voter approved (yet now
increasingly regretted) Proposition 73, most of these men will be there
until they die.
In keeping with California’s current practice of building prisons in
the remotest areas possible, CSH is out in the middle of nowhere, its
nearest big neighbor a giant commercial cattle farm (which regularly
graces the ‘hospital’ with a malodorous stench.)
On its website, the department responsible for CSH claims that it is a
state-of-the-art mental hospital. This is a lie. It is staffed heavily
by prison guards because the state can’t find enough “therapists” who
want to work there even at more than twice the pay of equivalent
workers at other state hospitals. (The few staff psychiatrists working
at CSH were brought over from India, because the state couldn’t find
any American doctors willing to take these positions.)
The so-called “hospital” serves prison food (which is neither terribly
tasty nor healthy, but the state has a nearly $20 Billion dollar budget
shortfall so I guess they’re lucky to eat at all!)
The inmates (we refuse to call them patients) are subjected to
arbitrary and capricious rules – often worse than regular prison rules
– regarding possessions, activities, etc. In fact, inmates who refuse
to participate in the ‘treatment’ program (the vast majority, by the
way) are illegally denied exercise and other opportunities.
Currently, I know of three men in CSH. All three have served the long
sentences they received for non-violent offenses. All three have
spent years awaiting their first (and now, effectively, their only)
civil commitment hearing, longer than they would have been on parole.
I am in regular contact with one of these men. He has chosen to
actively resist the banal evil of the place. He reports frequently of a
revolving door at the top of the administration (it isn’t just low
level folks the state can’t keep) which causes low staff morale and
institutional gridlock preventing any and all promised improvements
(how convenient!) He tells of utterly dispirited men who have come to
realize they are no longer seen as human beings with human rights but
simply sources of income for the Dept. of Mental Health and the highly
paid evaluators.(3)
Most of them know the only way they will get out is feet-first (an
increasingly common occurrence given the substandard medical treatment
they receive at this “state-of-the-art hospital”.) But what disheartens
many of them the most is the feeling they have been totally abandoned
and forgotten – that no one on the outside knows or cares that they are
in there.
One of the main purposes of our protest was to let these men know that
they are not forgotten – that there are family and friends on the
outside who continue to care for them and who continue to fight on
their behalf. (Some of the protesters drove in from out of state. I was
lucky enough to be only about a 5-hour drive away.) The protesters
included wives, parents, children – even some of the “victims” who
don’t feel it right to treat human beings so inhumanely.
Also participating were social and political activists who see the harm
this approach is doing both to the inmates and to society as a whole –
the way enforced conformity to the orthodoxy of the moment has always
harmed individuals and societies. After years of neo-conservative
browbeating, progressives are once again finding their voices and once
again remembering that you must fight each injustice to fight all
injustice.
And then there was our contingent. We marched and spoke and protested
for all the reasons mentioned above. We marched in spite of the fact
that all of us were named defendants in the then active (now properly
dismissed) baseless lawsuit against us. We marched in solidarity with
our brothers who protested outside Bridgewater so long ago. We marched
because it was the right thing to do.
So what was the result? Well, the staff freaked out and put the
“hospital” on lock-down – exactly like a prison would.(4) The inmates
took heart and broke out in simultaneous, spontaneous protests of their
own. News crews from a half dozen or more regional stations came and
filmed us for reports on the nightly news and the story was picked up
by several national news organizations and independent bloggers. Best
of all, it got a lot of people to start asking some rather pointed
questions about the vast sums of money that are being spent on CSH with
little or nothing to show for it.(5)
Notes:
(1) The protest was cosponsored by Friends and Family
of California Civil Detainees (detainees@gmail.com) and the group
Reform of Sex Offender Laws (http://www.rsol.org). Also participating
were Tom Madison, President of S.O.Clear, Jeff Griffen of the “Citizens
Committee on Human Rights”, Starchild (a Libertarian and Human Rights
activist) and several others.
(2) Though the US Supreme Court ruled that civil
commitment of sex offenders was legal (in Kansas v. Hendricks), I
believe this will someday be overturned just as Plessy v. Ferguson was.
Since California’s law went into effect in 1996, almost 600 men have
been committed under its provisions, with many more waiting in county
jails for the state to decide what to do with them.
(3) The California Department of Mental Health (DMH)
has admitted they screen out the more aggressive candidates because
they are too much trouble. They want passive folks who won’t cause them
problems. This revelation could lead inmates to conclude that if you
ever find yourself facing civil commitment, be aggressive, be violent,
join a gang – do whatever you need to do to make yourself too bitter a
pill to swallow.
(4) At first staff at CSH gave several conflicting
excuses for the lockdown (a need to clean the visiting room, a broken
camera in the visiting center, discovery of a “shank” buried in the
yard and the ever popular “lost keys”) before claiming it was
instituted to allow hospital police to investigate claims that visitors
were smuggling contraband into the hospital. When all of these flimsy
excuses failed the laugh test, a hospital spokeswoman testily indicated
she would not comment on hospital security.
(5) Because of the severe staff shortages, CSH can
only handle about 700 inmates instead of the 1500 it was designed to
hold. This means that it spends about twice as much per inmate on
power, water, heat, etc. than it should be. Because it can’t hire
adequate staff, it must rely on outside evaluators – a number of whom
are making over a million dollars a year as a consequence. Because Prop
83’s changes to the law have resulted in an explosion of cases
requiring evaluation the state will be spending an extra $27 million
doing them. This will result in NO increase in the number of inmates at
CSH because it can’t handle any more so the newly referred will have to
sit in protective custody in county jails running up even greater bills.
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Copyright ©
NAMBLA, 2008
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