Voices of the Incarcerated - Finding Hope with a 120-Year Sentence
"If we could punish our way out of drug use and addiction, America would be the most drug-free country in the world."
The following essay by Kenneth West, "Finding Hope When You Have a 120-Year Sentence," appeared on the website for Prison Writers. Excerpts are below.
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Throughout the 27 years of my incarceration, the prison system has grown progressively punitive. Every transgression by one prisoner — such as an escape, serious staff assault, or some other incident that gets the media’s attention — has been addressed by adding more sanctions to all prisoners. They ignore the fact that in nearly all incidents that make the news and bring scrutiny to the institution, are isolated events that usually result from guards failing to follow existing policies, rather than a lack of adequate rules or policies to begin with.
However, as a result of this progressive punitiveness, we have reached a point to where the majority of Texas prisoners live without hope. Predictably, incidents of suicide and drug use have skyrocketed during this period. The prison system has reacted to these problems with more punishments and sanctions against inmates.
But think about it. If we could punish our way out of drug use and addiction, America would be the most drug-free country in the world. But punishment for drug use and addiction doesn’t work out in society or here in prison.
Hopelessness combined with harsh living conditions, long prison sentences, little hope of making parole and few, if any, positive reinforcements, has created the current nihilistic state of the Texas Prison system — one where suicide, drug use and hopelessness are synonymous.
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Kenneth West is an incarcerated writer and artist from Houston, Texas. He has written 19 books, and his writing and art can be found on his websites: thekennethwest.com and artistkennethwest.com.
You can read his full essay, "Finding Hope When You Have a 120-Year Sentence" at the Prison Writers website. Prison Writers offer uncensored, personal stories and thoughtful essays from incarcerated citizens across the country about what really goes on inside the secretive world of prison corrections.
