Saturday, May 16:
I lack the benefit of reviewing my posts, and I don’t remember where I left off. Forgive me if I’m repeating or skipping points, and let’s get back to the work program.
Remember that I’m now in a gymnasium with 27 metal cots – 25 of which are full – one bathroom, no shower, and not much sound absorbing material. It gets very loud at times and the sound echoes around the room. Again, the ide is to acclimate prisoners towards getting out and becoming a tax paying “employee” (a legal term meaning someone who is required to fill out a W-2 and pay their income tax).
Lights are out from 11pm to 7am, but prisoners are working all hours of the day and night. Things are quiet in the morning – TV is kept low and many are sleeping – and starting about 10-11am it gets progressively louder until lock down at 11pm. If you’re working nights, it means the lights are on, the TV is going, and people are talking, all while the night cleaning crew is trying to sleep.
In the private market I’m free to seek or create work for myself that best utilizes the skills I have to offer the marketplace. I’ve chosen to follow one of my passions in life that makes use of my unique talents and abilities through media and film work. (Here’s a hint: chasing your passion and joy always does! It’s the universe’s way of telling you you’re on the right track to an extraordinary life!) I love working on film projects, as they involve my creativity, logical mind, technical expertise, and most importantly vision. My “work” is often more like play time. I’ve worked on projects that range from basic interviews to capturing former Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders and Mavericks dancers strut their stuff. The people involved are dedicated and high energy.
Unfortunately the jailers don’t even attempt, or likely understand the benefits of connecting people with their passion. here, Ms. Bacala, one of the guards who I believe cares the most and unfortunately is liked the least by the prisoners, decides who works where with little to no input from prisoners. Jobs are simply assigned based on the jail’s needs, while barely taking medical conditions or prisoner programs like Bible study into account.
In longer term editing projects I can work traditional business hours. When covering a news story, I often start editing, after a day of shooting, at 8 to 10pm and stop to publish as late as 11am. (I have yet to “finish” a project, as no matter how many times I watch it there’s always something else I want to tweak, so at some point I decide I’m happy with it and stop.) On location I often finish shooting after 10pm, and then I have 1-2 hours of teardown, along with spending 1-2 hours offloading/archiving footage, charging batteries, etc., only to return early in the morning 2 hours before the actors arrive, to setup the new location. Some days I decide to sleep in until 9 or 10am. It means I may fall behind, pass a deadline due to an unexpected issue, or simply reduce the amount of projects (and thereby compensation) I receive for my labor. Other times sleeping in could leave 20+ people wondering, Where the fuck is the DP? (director of photography) A mistake like that could severely damage my reputation. It’s a lot of work; it takes a lot of time, and I’ve been making mistakes while learning as I go. Some were big, others small, all had varying consequences.
In here prisoners don’t know when or where they are working. (they are typically assigned one job, but it can arbitrarily change at any time) During the day they call out names over the loudspeaker and tell them to get ready for work. That’s typically 30 minutes beforehand; sometimes announcements are late; other times they forget. The guards, to their credit, are typically pretty accommodating. At night, they come in, stand by their cot, call their name, and kick the leg of the cot if necessary. When it’s time to go they come back to collect the prisoners and escort them to work.
This is a government bureaucracy and they suffer inefficiencies and communication breakdowns as a result. Last week Eric Grover worked on Wednesday from 5am to 8pm, though you’ll get no complains from Grover, as he likes passing the time working various odd jobs around the jail. On Thursday he worked 5pm – 2am, but then 3 hours later at 5am on Friday morning they came to get him for work. He explained to the guards on 3rd shift that he had just finished working a shift that ended a few hours earlier. They apologized and let him sleep. Then first shift came on duty and Ms. Balaca came into the room at 9am, “Mr. Grover…. Mr. Grover…” She kicked his cot… again a little harder… but he was in a deep slumber. “MR. GROVER!” she shouted, waking him up. “Time for work please get up!” She then took the knit cap he was using to cover his eyes from the lights.
She’s a stickler for the rules and at times it feels like I’m watching a scene out of the Stanford Prison Experiment. She talks over the speakers with exceptional volume. Headcount, med pass, razors, or any other chore is shouted often waking everyone up. Bacala has gotten onto prisoners for bouncing the soccer ball off the wall (allowed), not making my bed, and one prisoner for sitting on another’s bed while conversing (the room is short about 10 chairs). One guy asked for indigent supplies (pencil, paper, stamped envelope) and she asked if he filled out a request (with what exactly?). When another prisoner offered a pencil and paper to fill out the request she threatened to write him up for trafficking! Most guards are fair, but a few of them have their moments.
When somebody doesn’t want to go to work, the punishment is the same – one size MUST fit all remember! – they get lugged and spend 15 days in the hole. As close as this comes it still fails to educate and incentivize people in a way that’s anywhere near as effective as the free market, while simultaneously fostering an arbitrary and capricious environment that’s ripe for abuse.
One does not become self-motivated without first learning to motivate himself, in the same way that war does not bring peace. As one of my personal spiritual mentors Thich Nhat Hanh puts it, there is no way to peace, peace is the way.
In that same context, government cannot ensure freedom – the protection of life, liberty, and property – by first taking it away. Sadly, that hasn’t stopped them from creating an endless series of unintended consequences in their futile attempts to achieve those ends.
SamIAm
