Voices of the Incarcerated - Paternalism as a Tool of Oppression
The following opinion piece "In Prison, Paternalism is Used as a Tool for Oppression" is featured at Prism Reports, and is written by Carla J. Simmons, an incarcerated writer in Georgia.
Excerpts are included below.
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In a recent computer class, our instructor asked if we knew why we had to exchange our identification cards for pens at the start of every class. After an awkward silence, I suggested, “Because the budget is tight, and you need to keep up with them?”
The instructor condescendingly smiled at my response.
“No, it’s because these pens could be used for all the wrong reasons,” he said. “You could poke yourself with them to make those ugly tattoos; you could draw on your eyelids in a dangerous attempt to enhance your eyes, or even lose your temper and stab each other in the neck.”
The class was aghast. The same exact pens were available for us to purchase through the commissary for 65 cents. They were never used for tattoos; real eyeliner was allowed and sold; and, despite the rise in violence in prison, pens had yet to become a weapon of choice. The instructor’s response was instead a clear reflection of the perception many share about incarcerated people: that we cannot be trusted with the basic aspects of human life.
As an incarcerated person, the restoration of my humanity is as essential as my freedom, but also impossible due to the limitations, isolation, and deprivation I experience.
The institution’s staff are trained to see us as suspects and believe their job is to save us from ourselves in the most absurd and arbitrary ways. All the while, very little is done to ensure our safety as narcotics, gang violence, and homicide rates continue to rise. This suspicion is also used to justify restrictions on our autonomy by denying us access to information and people in society.
It is a constant challenge to assert that we are capable of knowing who we are and what we need. Despite our skills and labor, we are unable to earn a wage. Our dependence on the state, which provides very little, and our families, who are forced to support our basic needs, prevents us from having any personal power and keeps us in a position of subordination, reliance, and inexperience. These positions reinforce that we can’t be completely trusted to know what we need, how to manage what we have, and navigate ourselves in the broader world.
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You can read the full opinion piece, "In Prison, Paternalism is Used as a Tool for Oppression" at Prism Reports. Prism Reports is an independent and nonprofit news outlet led by journalists of color. We report from the ground up and at the intersections of injustice. The work of incarcerated writers with Prism Reports is supported by the Right to Write (R2W) project, an editorial initiative where Prism works with incarcerated writers to share their reporting and perspectives across our verticals and coverage areas.
Author Carla J. Simmons has been incarcerated in Georgia since 2004. She has an associate degree in Positive Human Development and Social Change from Life University and is a member of the Justice Arts Coalition and Empowerment Avenue. She has contributed to the Scalawag Magazine as an author and artist, Rattling the Bars on the Real News Network, Truthout, Lux magazine, and the 2024 edition of the Other Almanac.
