#prison diary

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"Tomorrow is the First of May. In the office of the secret police one of the officers, smiling sweetly, said to me, “Do you know that we are rounding up lots of your people before your celebration?” Today I was approached by the gendarme, Colonel Ivanenko, who wanted to know if I was a confirmed Social-Democrat and if I would be willing to work for him. “Maybe you’ve become disappointed?” he queried. I asked him if he had ever heard the voice of conscience, whether he had ever had the feeling that he was serving an evil cause...

...

I had another visit from the colonel today. I trembled all over when I saw him, I felt as if a disgustingly slimy creature were creeping over my body. He politely informed me that my case had been transferred to the military court and that the indictment had already been sent to me. He expressed regret that the case had been taken from the jurisdiction of the Court of Justice and assured me that the military court very often delivered juster verdicts and less severe sentences than the Court of Justice. He inquired if I had books, asked about the food and added that it would not be a bad idea to have a theater in the prison. When I again asked him if he had ever had a conscience, he replied in a sympathetic and mournful voice saying that I wasn’t quite myself. Throughout this not very long conversation I had the feeling of a snake creeping over me, circling my body and clinging to me. I had no fear, I knew that I would come out of the trial all right. But I was physically repelled and felt that I wanted to vomit. I returned to my cell conscious that I no longer had the strength to maintain my usual peace of mind. I had the feeling that I was covered with dirt, human dirt… Evil, like red hot tongs, seizes and roasts the body of the living man and blinds him. It darkens the whole world, filling every particle, every breath and every atom with pain, excruciating pain. Andreyev has described war as being insane and monstrous; but life is a hundred times worse; and not only the life here in the dungeons, but life generally."

- Felix Dzerzhinsky, entry from April 29, 1908, Prison Diaries and Letters. Paris: Foreign Languages Press, 2023. p. 26, 29-30.

[iamherefortheships]

Review: A Prison Diary (Hell) by Jeffrey Archer ⭐⭐⭐

This book sat on my shelf for over a decade. I’d outgrown Archer’s style and had no sympathy for a jailed politician, but I finally picked it up.

It’s an accessible outsider-looking-in view of the British prison system—made unique because the "outsider" is an elite member of parliament. The result is a fascinating clash of two different worlds.

"Prisoners and guards routinely line up outside my cell to ask for my autograph, to write letters, and to seek advice on their appeals." - Jeffrey Archer

[maddcityprisondiary]

A FEDERAL OFFICER'S ILLEGAL DISCLOSURE OF PRISONER'S INFORMATION CREATES A DEADLY SCENARIO BOP Officer Rodney Folsof Is Possibly Getting Away With Murder

September 22, 2017

      Leavenworth, Kansas -- So the guy that Folsof assigned to the room on Saturday for Monday, relocated to another room on Wednesday. Supposedly it was my fault if you listen to Officer Rodney Folsof.  Everyone that hears this finds it at the very least comical and at best just plain old ridiculous.  I'm one of the most laid back, just trying to finish my time out and go home dudes that you will come across in here.  Heck, I virtually live in the law library.  I'm never in the dorm.  Honestly, I was surprised when I was told that the guy was moving by someone else no less.  I had no idea.  So it would seem as if Folsof used someone with a potentially "extremely" questionable background to retaliate against me.  Before the day was out, he replaced the first guy with another guy with what sounded like major "issues."  This was his way of paying me back.

    But here's the beauty of Folsof's psychosis.  Shortly after placing the guy into the room with me, I guess that he wanted everyone to know what he had done.  Idiot.  Folsof appears to have gone around and purposely gloated to key loud mouths in the dorm about the guy's past that he had just thrown into the cell with me. Yes!  Here's Folsof AGAIN disclosing this man's adverse criminal history. This was Folsof's pathetic way of getting back at me.  I'm certain that he found this hilarious.  And by the time that I got back to the dorm from where else but the library, it seemed as if everyone new about this guy but me.  As I walked in I heard from several people, "You heard what Folsof is saying about your new cellie?"

    Okay.  Here's the danger in what this "Federal" officer did.  By disclosing this guy's background in a "prison" environment in his attempt to take a "shot" at me, Folsof consequently placed this guy's life in mortal danger.  Not by me of course.  While I may take issue with the past lives of some people, though we all have issues some more serious than others, my focus is getting home to my family. Period.  I wouldn't dare.  But whoever else at the facility who is certain to hear the news that Folsof put out there regarding this guy's prior charge and takes personal offense to it, they may want to take matters into their own hands.  They may not be as focused on going home as I am.  Oh, and by the way, I have not personally heard about anything being planned or from anyone planning to do anything to this man.  But I and especially Folsof deeply understand this culture.  You probably understand this culture if you have ever watched any prison movie. Folsof, a federal correctional officer, just put this man's life in jeopardy and the staff notoriously turns a blind eye.

    Here's the hard truth:  If this guy is harmed in any way, even if it isn't by Officer Folsof's own hand, it will be done as a result of Folsof's unprofessionalism and childlike vindictiveness.  Again, the institution may try to place the blame on the prison community, while covering up for their fellow officer.  But it's these types of absurdities that could get someone mortally wounded in this environment.

    Case and point, back around the early part of 2014, it is said that word got out about another individual.  It was suggested that this guy was a sex offender.  This guy was eventually killed.  Yes, killed, as in no longer breathing.  What's even sadder is that it turned out that the guy wasn't even a sex offender.  That information had simply been put out there.  And who do you suppose put got that flow of information going?  One of the guys who assaulted the deceased is said to have been sentenced to life imprisonment.  It is my understanding that not a single officer was charged or even seriously questioned other than providing a sanitized version of what happed minus any possible influence of the officers themselves.

   I realize that the staff will not do anything about people like this Officer Rodney Folsof.  If anything happens to this guy, blame should fall on the staff and this particular officer as much, if not even more than the likely oblivious individual inside of this place that may actually act on that news.

[pyotra]

[S.K. Acharyya was in prison in 1963, under the Defense of India Rules, which empowered the Government of India to imprison whoever it wanted as long as it wanted, without trial or charge. Barrister Acharyya was later the Advocate General of West Bengal. Here is a selection from his meticulously maintained diary.]

My favorites: 

“A lovely sight this afternoon. The Jailer fell down in a puddle and got up with his clothes full of mud and slime. How we crowed with delight. A few days ago, it was arranged that one long term prisoner, on proper consideration, would pour a pot-full of human excreta on the Jailer. After the proposal was duly passed, this elite among the convicts had filled up an earthen pot, scouring the latrines and covered the top with a light smear of curd, procured from the hospital. The Jailer was on his rounds, when this convict went up to him on the pretext of discussing this curd business and then—down on his head, the mixture was poured! As we had not witnessed that sight, we were happy to have seen this minor discomfiture.”

--

“A real bit of good news in the paper. Dange was frightened to death to visit Kerala as the people  there have promised to welcome him with a garland of dirty shoes; so Govindan Nair had wired Dange not to come to Kerala. Only a few days ago Namboodiripad and Gopalan were received with flowers and thousands of people went beyond the city limits to the Airport to receive them. More news like this  and my detention would be worthwhile.”

[imprisonedwritersph-blog]

Today is PEN International's Day of the Imprisoned Writer! FREEDOM!

[imprisonedwritersph-blog]

[thejadecave]

I've never been given to chanting verse; But what else can a captive do in jail? These long days I'll spend composing poems: Singing may ease the wait for freedom.

Ho Chi Minh, 'Beginning the Diary', from The Prison Poems of Ho Chi Minh, trans. by The Binh Dang