Standard operating policy
By Brandon Astor Jones
"Correspondence is prohibited with individuals outside the continental United States who are not related by birth, marriage, or legal adoption." — Warden A.G. Thomas
To the dismay and chagrin of every prisoner in G-Unit, yet another dehumanising memorandum was posted on December 1. In essence the quote above, taken from Standard Operating Policy IIB04-001, explicitly says all that needs to be said: prisoners in the state of Georgia will no longer be allowed to correspond with people in places like Australia, England, France, South Africa, the Netherlands or any other countries overseas.
The prison officials who hatched this so-called "policy" did not even allow prisoners the simple human courtesy of letting us write our correspondents to explain why it is that they are not hearing from us.
Most US prison administrators resent these people overseas who think of prisoners as human beings; such thinking does not go over well because it does not mesh with the concept of systemic dehumanisation which is the hallmark of the US prison system.
What with so many complaints from overseas pointing out the human rights abuses that US prisoners are being subjected to, this most recent administrative policy change comes as no surprise. Prison administrators mean to crush any and all friendships and/or support networks that have been developed overseas. The resentment goes even further, into the very core of the majority of US society: it seems that most Americans prefer to deny prisoners any basic human interaction with the outside world.
Equally worthy of note is that this outrageous policy change came on the heels of the most recent rise of Republican popularity and control of the political scene. Generally and historically the majority of the Republican Party has maintained a long reputation for hating the children on welfare, poor families, women and African-American men in particular — the latter representing as much as 50% of the prison population.
For many prisoners, especially those who have no real family members or loved ones, this policy change tears their emotional worlds asunder with a brutal and demoralising abruptness. Let me add that we were also informed that while we are not allowed to communicate with individuals overseas, they may continue their communications with us. Of course, there is no telling when or if that too will suddenly be subjected to a "change in policy". Anyone who wonders why most prisoners in the USA are so full of rage and seething anger need only look at the thousands of dehumanising prison policies on record, like IIB04-001.
The clear message in this new policy is that you must not treat American prisoners like human beings — and if you do, we will stop them from communicating with you completely.
It is my hope that everyone who cares about the humanity of prisoners will intensify their interactions with us. Tell your friends — and yes, ask them to tell their friends as well — to do all that they can in a collective effort to knock down IIB04-001. There can be no doubt it was designed to expand the daily misery and emotional trauma of prison.
Through all of this we respectfully request that all of you continue to support us and privilege us with your full presence in our lives. We love you and look forward to hearing from you soon.
[The writer is a prisoner on death row in the United States. He is happy to receive letters commenting on his columns. He can be written to at: Brandon Astor Jones, EF-122216, G2-51, GD&CC, PO Box 3877, Jackson, GA 30233, USA.]