Prison report: Skylights and fruit loopsBy Just A Guy
I feel like ranting, so I’m going to.
There’s a TV show called Southland on NBC, a show about cops in LA that’s actually quite entertaining. At any rate, in the show, one of the cops is addicted to pain pills, to the point where he buys them illegally. I guess what I have an issue with is the way the show portrays this cop with an addiction, causing one to feel sympathy for him. But when you see the other addicts in the show, the ones who are criminals, they are portrayed much more, shall we say, negatively.
It’s almost as if a cop’s moral compass is more finely tuned because he’s a cop addict and not your general street addict.
Most shows portray addicts as thieves or crooks, and while I appreciate Southland’s attempt to honestly look at addiction in uniform, I think it’s disturbing that the media generally promotes addiction as something that only thugs and gangsters experience.
***
I have certainly blogged about the lack of programs at CDCR, but feel compelled to mention this: A couple of day ago I noticed a signup sheet taped to the officers’ podium in my building. It read: “sign up sheet” on the top sand underneath, “emotional maturity class”
There are 200 people in my building. One has signed up. Question: How many others in prison are emotionally mature enough to realize we may benefit from such a class? And how many really know what emotional maturity means?
The irony on top of this irony is that as I was reading the sheet one of the officers asked me “what?” rather snidefully. And I explained how there was signup sheet for an emotional maturity class and that out of 200 inmates only one had signed up. The officer just looked away without comment, and his partner studiously ignored me.
I wonder if they have signup sheets for the cops, too.
****
Then there was an article in the San Jose Mercury News in which some sort of health-care guy said that releases are going to be bad for people in prison. Inmates are currently receiving health care -- and if they’re released they won’t be able to afford care and medication. Well, they’re still going to get out -- en masse or not -- dickhead, and what are you going to do about it?
Then the guy had the stupidity to say it could be worse for the released prisoners because it’s more stressful outside than in prison. Obviously the guy has not been in prison and doesn’t know that many of us would rather have the stress of worrying about a meal or medication than about whether we may get in a fight, race riot, stabbed, and on and on.
Don’t “normal” people stress about meals and medication these days, too -- or is it just people who have been in prison that stress about food and health care? Moron.
***
That brings me to lights being on in my building. You see, the prison buildings they construct these days have built-in skylights, in the case of my building, 12 to be exact. Now I believe the purpose of the skylights isn’t decorative (they’re 20 feet high and have bars blocking them), but rather to allow light into the buildings so the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation can save electricity by turning the lights off. And trust me, the skylights provide more than adequate light.
There are also 41 massive lights hanging in the building. It’s 8:15 a.m., nice outside with plenty of sunlight -- and all 41 overhead lights are on!
Why not? The cops don’t have to pay the bill.
Some of the cops are such dicks that if you ask them to turn the lights off they will leave them, on in defiance of your asking, just to show their power. Seriously.
What’s the difference between this waste and the hundred-dollar screwdriver? You should be outraged more at this waste because not only is it an unnecessary expenditure, it’s also an unnecessary waste of our natural resources.
Does anyone audit CDCR’s use of natural resources? I bet these cops turn off their lights at home when they’re not needed.
***
Finally, I saw on the news that some consumer groups are upset and government is “observing” the new “smart choice” label program that has been put into practice by the food industry, which is labeling some 500 different products with the “smart choice” label if they meet the criteria, whatever the criteria are.
Of course, consumer advocates, nutritionists and others are saying that the smart choice labels are misleading and that consumers may think that the food is a healthy choice and an approved government sponsored program.
OMG! You mean that the food industry is trying to label something that may help their product sell! It’s not a lie if it fits the criteria, is it? I mean, Fruit Loops have the smart choice label, so those must be a healthy choice, right?
People are becoming less and less able to think for themselves and take responsibility for their own choices and are too often reliant on others to make decisions -- and then when they make a poor decision they blame corporate America for the fact that they didn’t read the goddam label.
Do you think every restaurant in the country that has a big banner proclaiming “good food” actually does? Maybe we should create a taste committee and only allow those restaurants that pass the committee’s stringent taste standards to have such a statement as part of their self-promotion.
This is why CDCR gets away with so much: Because there is no committee reporting to the public the real truth behind the rhetoric. And it’s easier to just believe what you hear because it absolves you from responsibility.
***
I’ve got an idea: Turn your TV to Southland, and since that’s what life is really like, believe that inmates are more stressed out free than not. Turn on all your lights because it makes your house more secure at noon, and go buy a box of Fruit Loops for a healthy snack.
After you're done, I’m sure you will have gained enough emotional maturity to make smart choices.
digg •
del.icio.us •
sphere •
google
•
