Louisiana Voice

(Editor’s note: Rip Picard is not the writer’s real name, for obvious reasons. His column below gives a rare peek into the way Louisiana’s prison system operates.)

Allen’s Finest…

By Rip Picard

January 2003 I was transported to Allen Correctional Center in Kinder, Louisiana. I’d been sentenced not two years before on a robbery charge which stemmed primarily from youthful rebelliousness and a naivete which soon was made clear after being arrested. At that age, I was under the impression that the badder I was, the cooler I was. I was ultimately sentenced – as a first offender – to fifteen years with the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections. Of those fifteen years, I would end up serving just over 12 years in accordance with Louisiana sentencing and good time laws.

Anytime – as most often is the case – you start a lengthy sentence in any of the various “satellite” camps (local facilities which house DOC offenders) in Louisiana, you find yourself satiating your boredom by digesting the grapevine of what’s available at State operated facilities. Educational opportunities range from Literacy classes to vocational school and even college. Various State facilities even boast other trades such as sign language certification and seminary. Beyond education, there are offender nonprofit organizations such as the Junior Chamber of Commerce, Toastmasters of America, VETS, and several facility-bred nonprofits which offenders can pursue the opportunity to learn how to plan and carry out community service activities to further sharpen their citizenship skills for their return to society. Should you find yourself with a little extra time here and there, State facilities have recreation yards, weight piles, gymnasium, sports leagues, arts and crafts, and countless self-help classes – many of which can afford you more good time off your release date for completion of same. All in all, there is a glaring opportunity for any offender to truly refine and redefine themselves into a productive individual with a true sense of self-worth. Couple that with the handful of organizations and government initiatives aimed at achieving employment for recently released offenders, and there is the real opportunity for the criminal justice initiatives of rehabilitation, education, and reentry to become a reality.

All in all, I was housed at Allen Correctional Center from January 2003 until January 2010, at which time I transferred to Rayburn Correctional Center in Angie, Louisiana. While at Allen, I completed a vocational trade, was a peer trainer/tutor in several classes/self-help programs, as well as an elected board member of a nonprofit organization. Such endeavors, however, come with the added cost of having to figuratively fight for the ability to participate. Starting with the mandate – at least at the time – that you serve a minimum of 90 days in the field line prior to obtaining a job change. This could be seen as a reasonable election to see what type of workers individuals are, but what’s left in the grey area is that many offenders are given disciplinary reports by security guards who simply make up a reason to issue an infraction – and sometimes this is done with the specific intent to keep the offender from obtaining a job change. My field job when arriving at Allen consisted of digging to the tap root of pine trees and chopping them down and cutting them into sections with an axe which was welded to a quarter inch thick hollow steel pipe which weighed anywhere from 20-25 pounds each. Likewise, for those working the shovels, pitchforks, hoes, etc., all were welded to the same type of piping for the appropriate length for the tool. They didn’t want to pay for replacement wooden handles.

For those who received infractions for no reason at all, they were brought before a kangaroo court disciplinary board where the offender disciplinary counsel already knew what the disciplinary board planned to do and told the offender either plead guilty and receive sentence “A” or fight it and maybe they’ll send you to the cell block. Considering the disciplinary procedures are a manifestation of the Louisiana legislature to provide a semblance of Due Process within the prison system, the actual procedures adhered to would make any actually just barrister roll eternally in their grave. There were only two members of the disciplinary board, a chairman and member. During my time there, Assistant Warden Mark Estes, Major Lasonya Thomas, and Captain Selton Manuel were the dominant presence on the disciplinary board. In short, Estes was gifted an Assistant Warden position at about the age of 25 from the “Good Old Boy Club” in Allen Parish, Thomas was a time bomb who would break security radios on the side of offenders’ heads because she felt like it (and was even kicked out of a GEO prison in Texas because of these antics) without any legal repercussions whatsoever, and Manuel was always seeking an angle to send someone to the cell block whether they deserved it. None of the three ever had anything to do with anything which could be perceived as rehabilitation. In fact, I was once told that they expected offenders to remember their place by acting up and being offenders, they didn’t care about all “that other stuff”.

Allen Correction Center, for the entire time I was there, was a compost pile of staff which was poorly – if at all – trained and an administration that was the poster child for the way Louisiana government really works. Once, there was an offender who was brutally beaten by a captain and several members of the field line staff. While he was handcuffed. Little did they know the individual’s family member worked for the FBI. Next thing you know the captain and those field line staff were escorted off the compound by the FBI. Needless to say, many (if not all) of those staff members went on to work in other prisons. Another time an offender was stabbed to death and kicked by another offender who acquired the steak knife from the lunch box of a female staff member with whom he was in a relationship. The offender only received an eight-year sentence for murdering that man. So, was his life less valuable than someone who isn’t in prison? If “Karen” or “Kevin” were stabbed to death and kicked while dying, that would come with at least a life sentence. Manslaughter at the low end.

These are just a few examples of what really goes on in prisons in Louisiana. There are a great many staff members, particularly those involved in programs, counseling, and reentry services who truly care and do their best to make a difference. It’s a bittersweet victory for them, however, because they often find themselves targeted by administration and staff as well because they can’t fathom the idea of offenders becoming better. As assistant warden was quoted as saying during a staff training session, “If an inmate is talking, he’s lying.” Although I can’t speak to the circumstances which pushed the bad apples to the deranged mentality they acquired, I can say that the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo hit the nail on the head. I can remember – while at Allen – reading “The Lucifer Effect”, written by Zimbardo, and feeling like they must be talking about Allen Correctional.

At some point, Louisiana’s constituents need to be able to bridge the gap between what they believe about Louisiana’s government and what reality is. There are times I feel there are a great many people who know better and just don’t care because they don’t want to concern themselves with the mess which is government. And I get it, life is hard enough by itself without trying to champion a cause which may or may not be affecting an individual. But then I think about the old Greek offender I was housed with for a time, who was in Greece when it was occupied by the Nazis. He was actually going to be shipped to a concentration camp and, but to his good fortune, the UN took back Greece. I asked him one day if there were any particular prison in Louisiana wherein the guards reminded him of the Nazis, to which he replied, “Yeah, St. Tammany Parish Jail.” I’ll close with one of my favorite poems I look to when seeking a little inspiration:

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me

– Pastor Martin Niemöller