Telling The Whole Story

When I first started teaching in prisons, someone gave me a valuable piece of advice: do not patronize incarcerated people.

I didn’t, I don’t, and boy, was that good advice.

I’m constantly struck by how intelligent most of these men are. Far from teaching “down” to the class, I often find I need to up my game, because they ask such penetrating questions. People in prison are also sharply attuned to any kind of phoniness.

This week, the officer who escorted us to the school building wore a plastic rain bonnet – the kind I haven’t seen in years – to protect her elaborate bun. The raindrops beading on the rolls of silver barbed wire were illuminated by spotlights, making it look as if a spaceship had just landed in the courtyard.

The classroom was too warm, and W opened the windows. (Another difference between a max and a medium prison – I teach in a room with windows and they open!) Canada Geese are all over this prison’s grounds, and their squawking sounded as it it was in the room. The wind kept blowing the door into the trash can used to prop it open, adding to the general cacophony.

We closed the door, the geese moved on, and we began. Tonight’s lesson was an exploration of how to report out a story. We began by having one of the men read the official healthcare policy for prisoners, which I’d printed off the state website ahead of time. It was a straightforward description of services provided, less than a page long.

Even as it was being read out loud, some guys were shaking their heads. There was a lot of daylight between what the official policy was, and the reality of how it was implemented.

M put his reaction succinctly: “It’s not a lie. But it’s not the truth.”

That was a good kickoff for talking about how to pursue a news story, especially if you are working off a press release or press event. But I quickly cut off the discussion about the guys’ personal experiences with prison health care, because I’m now on “rabbit hole alert” and we needed to move on.

Next the class took turns reading a July 2023 press release announcing a program to reduce gun violence by people on parole. B kept cracking up, because he was so amused by all the acronyms for the various initiatives and agencies. But as they began to discuss the content of the program – which called for “enhanced supervision, intelligence and data gathering” of certain parolees, no one in the class was laughing.

“This is how they’re gonna get us all,” S said, shaking his head. “They gonna know everything.”

“Are they using GPS? Is that different than an ankle monitor?”

I was determined to stick to the lesson plan. “Okay,” I told the class. “We have the information in the press release. That’s a starting point. What else do we need to know and who would we need to talk to to report the story?”

“I want to know why they picked these four cities for the program,” D said. “It seems there’s worse crime in other places in the state.”

“Who’s deciding who’s should be in program?” M asked.

“How’s this going to work with spot shooters?” V wanted to know.

I had to ask what a “spot shooter” was. C explained it was an auditory device that picked up gun shots.

“So if you’re in this program, and you’re just in that area and they hear a gun shot, are you going to get arrested?” D wanted to know.

Some of the follow-up questions/ideas the class came up with:

-Can you give us a better explanation of the program? What does “enhanced supervision, intelligence and data collection” involve? What data are they looking for? What’s done with the data collected? Does it include access to phone calls and texts? What kind of monitor does a person wear?

-How is this different than parole supervision outside the program?

-Follow up with the Governor’s office – What is the history of this program? Why is it necessary? Has it been implemented in other states? If so, what it successful?

-Interview people who are currently paroled and in the program. What does this mean for their day-to-day lives? Does it affect their families? Their ability to get a job?

-Interview people who have been the victims of gun violence in the area the program is operating. Do they think the program is a good idea? Do they feel safer?

-Find statistics on whether gun violence has dropped in the areas where the program was implemented.

P wanted to know why he hadn’t ever heard of this program. I told the guys that I’d searched extensively online and couldn’t find one news article on it. The press release went out and then …crickets. No one picked it up.

Another interesting journalism story – what isn’t covered in the press and why?

The article I had the men read, “How I Survived a Year in ‘the Hole’ Without Losing My Mind” by Michael J. Nichols and published by The Marshall Project, really didn’t have anything to do with how to report a story. (“The hole” in the headline refers to solitary confinement or administration segregation.) Nichols’ piece was about staying physically and mentally healthy in an isolated, unforgiving environment.

I chose it because I wanted to give the men something positive to focus on. The prompt: write about your prison survival tools. You can write it as advice or just describe what you do to get yourself through. Here’s a sampling:

C: Number one- keep your mouth shut. Take advantage of all opportunities. Once in awhile, clean up somebody’s stuff, but don’t do it all the time. Junk food has no place in your body except for emergency comfort.

S: When I went to prison, my son was 4 months old. That hurt. I decided that I would do every program that would refine me into the kind of man I wanted to be when I returned to him. My son will be 9 years old this year. I’m excited to show him what I’ve learned.

[Note: when men talk about programing in prison, they’re referring to opportunities for self-improvement – GED and college courses, parenting classes, anger management classes, and other rehabilitative classes that offer tools and skill sets for life.]

M: I came to prison when I was 17. My uncle came to visit me. I kept asking him all about the neighborhood. He said, ‘Yo, M. Stop asking all these questions. They ain’t asking about you.’ And he told me, ‘no snitching, no gambling, no drunks you can’t pay for. Be a man.”

J: Your life is not a place. Get over what you’ve been – it’s not who you are or who you can be. Ride with other dudes who are doing programming.

B: Faith is important, though I still struggle with the concept of a good God.

V: I asked myself how I’m going to do do this? What about my now-ex wife and my now ex-step children? Got myself involved with a mosque, learned to pray, stay away from drugs. I also learned how to do floor covering. That helped a lot. I like learning.

D: I read the newspaper everyday. I’m grateful for it. It helps me keep up with all the things going on on the outside. It’s easy to think that this is as bad as it gets. The corruption, the violence in prison are real. But when you read about war and genocide, it gives you perspective.

R: Stay busy. To be busy is the way to go. There are programs inside that can help you. Don’t put yourself in other people’s business. Stay alert. Feel this gift of writing. It frees.

The class always ends with a moment of silence for the people that class members have harmed. It’s a moment of grace.