Advice for a young man/budding activist who *deeply* fears prison?

[DerekG]

Note: Any poster(s) who feel(s) the urge to make light of prison rape should click the "back" button. I'm aiming for an air of sobriety, here. (Besides, there's nothing really funny about rape/violence to begin with.)


It seems prison is the fate for damn near every activist who ever lived (Thoreau, Gandhi, Bonhoeffer, Malcolm X, Mandela, King, Day, the brothers Berrigan), but for all the literature I've scoured, the thought of incarceration still scares me to death.

It's not the loss of freedom. Nor is it the prospect of sitting behind bars for months or years. (I'm an insular guy; solitude does not bother me.)

It's the abuse. The beatings. The sodomy. The rapes. All the tortures inflicted upon at least 20 percent of inmates (and usually the gentler, weaker ones...like myself).

I know I'd crack. I never harbored that animus, that testosterone. Those animals would make my life a living hell (and from what I've read, many guards are even more sadistic.)

This fear has served as a bulwark, preventing me from pursuing war-tax resistance status, and, I'm sure, any serious acts of non-violent resistance that lie in the future.

I could really use some advice.

On edit: I am NOT considering violent recourses of any kind.

[MichiganVote]

1. Whatever it is, don't do it

Do something useful instead

[skooooo]

2. There's a lot of space between...

...not being an activist and getting thrown in prison for being one.

[Brundle_Fly]

3. What do you plan to do?

[DerekG]

9. Anything within the realm of non-violent protest

War-tax resistance, disruptive (possibly illegal) demonstrations, and, if it came down to it, resistance to the draft.

Don't worry, nothing violent.

[growlypants]

4. you just might end up in prison for your anti-Bush

beliefs within the next year or two so you might as well go down fightin. Thats how I'm livin life these days

[Tace]

5. Stay Out Of Prison

[tavalon]

6. Well, for one

the garden variety in the streets resistance, especially those coordinated with large groups, only results in, at most, an overnight stay and people keep tabs on you and you're usually in with a number of other people who were also resisting.

OTOH, if even that gives you palpitations, do something else, such as supporting those who are out in the streets, or writing LTTE or __________.

I definitely wouldn't go for the tax resistance idea because that may well get you a trip to prison.

[htuttle]

7. Most of the time, demonstrators who get arrested at demonstrations...

...end up sitting in jail with other demonstrators. Usually in the police lockup or municipal jail 'holding pen' (or if it's a big demonstration in New York, a toxic old bus garage).

Rarely would you end up in a general prison population where you have a risk of getting abused by 'jailbirds'.

Don't sweat it so much. Just try to get arrested in a group.

[politicaholic]

8. Activism isn't a felony...

As long as you don't destroy property or hurt other people the worst that can happen to you is a few days in county jail.

I mean, dude, if you're thinking about something crazy that would get you put away in a bad ass prison then you just need to turn the fuck around. The peace movement doesn't need your help.

[rox63]

10. Start with something less risky

Like peace marches and the like. I just came back from my local pro-Cindy peace vigil, and it was great. I'm going to DC for the big rally in September, and I have no plans to get arrested. :)

[enough]

11. DerekG, I think you should talk with people and organizations who

have had many decades of experience of activism, sometimes leading to prison, sometimes not.

The first two organizations that come to mind are:

The American Friends Service Committee, and the National Lawyers Guild. In both these groups you will find a long tradition of sustained work for justice and peace, in the US and internationally. There will be people in both groups who have gone to prison for their beliefs, and also those who have been active all their lives without going to jail. Most of all, they will take your question seriously.

Both have websites and offices throughout the country.

Best to you on your path.

[Spinzonner]

12. Find some other way of participating and helping

Not everyone can or needs to be on the front lines.

In modern armies, only a fraction of soldiers are front-line combat, there's lots of support troops needed. Movements are the same.

There's no need to feel guilty or apologize or whatever. Just do your part whatever that may be.

[halsaxby]

13. For starters....

U.S. political prisoners usually get sent to minimum security prisons, where rape and violence is at a minimum. People don't screw around in white-collar prison because they don't want to get put in real prison.

Nevertheless, although activism isn't a crime, Corporate Tyranny is still in its infacy. For instance, I fully expect that this site is regularly monitored by federal law enforcement/Homeland security types. In 5-10 years, simply being a member of a board like this could lead to "unrelated" legal entanglements, if they even continue to pretend to abide by the constitution at that point.

Sooner or later, they will have to censor/restrict the internet because it's the only form of mass media that allows free speech. When that day comes, we may pay a price for what we have said here and places like it.

[Divernan]

19. The operative words are "usually" and "minimum"

No one has any guaranty that they will be sent to a minimum security prison . And even if you are, that is no protection.
Who goes to minimum security lockups?
Well there are a lot of seriously violent criminals who have pled down their charges in exchange for deals to rat out their partners in crime. (And the Club Feds are saved for the hotshot white collar criminals and corrupt politicians, not political protestors).

The prison industry has been privatized either completely or in use of prison labor, and is a big money maker. Club Feds, where the guards wear blazers and the "inmates" have access to squash courts and bridge tournaments, are NOT moneymakers - unless you have some highly placed relatives or political contacts with the GOP, don't count on getting sent there.
And of course, you would only be sent there after being tried and convicted - so that leaves you for weeks or months in the local county jail with every variety of violent criminal.

[ohio_liberal]

14. Listen, I worked in the OH Department of Corrections for 17 yrs

Don't do anything that would cause incarceration. If you are seen as weak, you will be dominated by other inmates in the worst possible ways. Just don't let it happen.

[Psyop Samurai]

15. For anyone who wants to research this topic...

http://www.spr.org/

[Divernan]

16. Fear of rape has resulted in prison suicides by young men

Back in the 70's, there was a rash of suicides by young (18/20 yr. olds) men in the Allegheny County Jail (downtown PIttsburgh) and in a couple of the outlying county police station lockups just before they would have been transferred to the county jail. I was a grad student/junior member of a team of social scientists hired to investigate this - our conclusion (this was my first experience reading autopsy protocols/results)was that these young men had not yet been raped but were terrified of the prospect. The term used was "acute homosexual panic".

All of these young men died by hanging themselves. There was some speculation that they might not have meant to actually succeed in hanging themselves, but only to create the appearance of an unsuccessful attempt - a cry for help which would get them out of the general prison population and into the psych ward. Certainly the old county jail - since closed as unfit for its purpose - was a wild, over-crowded, out of control place, where the guards locked themselves into a glass-walled observation booth while the prisoners roamed free through several floors of cells. I went in with a deputy warden and another grad student to inspect the cells where some of the deaths had occurred and felt lucky to get back out without being attacked.

Of course, all the suggestions we came up with to improve the safety and general circumstances of incarceration there would have cost taxpayer money, and no politician would get votes from putting money there - so basically nothing was done until a federal judge closed the place down for being so depraved, crowded and unhealthy that it constituted cruel and unusual punishment to keep people there.

After what I observed and learned about the fates of young men who mostly were arrested for DUI, or fighting in a bar, I really blow up if I hear someone say, if my kid gets arrested, I'll just let him sit in jail overnight - it will teach him a lesson. Jailing someone is far too dangerous, and possibly lethal.

You are quite right that prison rape is quite common and if you are a physically small man, you will be an immediate victim. So ignore the macho types that tell you to go ahead and risk arrest.
And I would like to point out that women get raped in prison too, whether by other women using various objects, or by guards.

[Ladyhawk]

17. My brother is a correctional officer (guard) and I know from comments

that he has made that he is rather cruel. You'd have inmates and guards after you.

Prisons are unnatural, obviously. I don't know how else modern societies can protect themselves, but it seems prisons bring out the worst in everyone. :(

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

18. Read Emerson

Read Thoreau.

You WILL understand.

Peace.

I have been jailed for being a dissident. Never been raped, never been beaten. It sucks, and the worst thing that happened to me was by my own hands. It's not easy but I have no regrets.

[Richard Steele]

20. Start SMALLER than "tax resistance".

There's a lot of VERY GOOD advice on this thread already,
and lots of ways that you can make a difference
without risking prison time.

And if you find that, someday, you MUST take that risk,
I have one TINY piece of advice that might help (!MIGHT!) :
Grow a beard.
The nastier the better.

The folks I have met who actually spent time in prison
have told me that facial hair is a major turn-off for most
prison rapists.

But personally, I would advise that you avoid
the opportunity to find out if that info is correct.

If not for you, then for all of US.
You aren't gonna help anyone very much sitting in a cell;
you can get a lot more accomplished if you are walking free.

Doing a small thing every day will accomplish more
than doing one large thing that costs you your freedom.