For a fairly law-abiding citizen, I have been behind bars more than most people. The experience has been scintillating.
I met Gabriel who came for hiking in the Himalayas, loved the superb hashish he could buy for a trifling sum and bought the large stash that made him fit the definition of a trader in local law; he became an indefinite guest of the prison authorities. Or Jeannie, who also tried some marijuana that was unfortunately laced by the vendor with some PCP, had a violently negative reaction, and acted dangerously unstable on the street; she was sent to prison instead of to a hospital. I spent time with them both, and many more like them. Usually I counseled them, got them a good lawyer and tried to help in other ways.
As a United States consul, I was responsible for American citizens who were in jail in a foreign land. I knew, by talking with colleagues, that many consuls could not care less for jailed Americans. Like most people, they assumed that people who were put behind bars belonged there. They deserved their sentence.
My inclination was different. I felt I had a clearer idea of the justice system in most lands. I had read Camus and Koestler and had the interest to find out the way capital punishment operates in many countries. Rich, resourceful criminals are almost never executed. It is the poor, who belong to a backward or minority group, who are hanged, injected with poison or killed more slowly in soul-killing confinement.
My inclination was different. I felt I had a clearer idea of the justice system in most lands. I had read Camus and Koestler and had the interest to find out the way capital punishment operates in many countries. Rich, resourceful criminals are almost never executed. It is the poor, who belong to a backward or minority group, who are hanged, injected with poison or killed more slowly in soul-killing confinement.
For lesser crimes, as in civil cases, the balance tilts even more egregiously in favor of the well-heeled. Get good lawyers, get well-paid specialists and investigators, and you can go scot-free even if you drive over sleeping people in a drunken spree. In advanced countries as much as in the less advanced, as Harold Lasky said long ago, there is a law for the rich and a law for the poor. Justice is blind, not because it is impartial but because it does not want to see.
One has to be unusually naïve or foolish to imagine that the people in jail are all bad and the people outside are all good. In the country where I was assigned, I knew also that the quality of marijuana was very good and the cost very low. It was tempting for American tourists to not only buy and smoke, but also buy and take home. That was when they got caught. Few seemed to care that they were behind bars for months when they should have been living a productive life outside.
As long as bad laws remained on statute books and punishment was used to exact a pound of flesh and not to rehabilitate wrong-doers, sham justice will be the rule rather than the exception in most countries.
I took the part of my work that related to prisoners very seriously. I set up a routine of monthly or bi-weekly visit to the prison, read up in advance about the prisoners’ background and case history, and even took vitamin tablets or preferred cereals for the American prisoners.
I took the part of my work that related to prisoners very seriously. I set up a routine of monthly or bi-weekly visit to the prison, read up in advance about the prisoners’ background and case history, and even took vitamin tablets or preferred cereals for the American prisoners.
My intentions were twofold. I wanted to demonstrably underline the human dignity of those prisoners. They were not human refuse, but valuable beings who had made mistakes and were paying a price, sometimes an unreasonably high price for their mistakes. They deserved to be regarded as human beings, their human pains and needs should be addressed.
My other object was to underline the uncompromising nature of human rights that every person, in all circumstances, was entitled to. It was far beyond my power to guarantee it to every person, but by insisting on overtly displaying it to American prisoners I hoped to generate a broader awareness of among the entire prison population. I knew I had created some talk, when the prison wardens spoke of their surprise and sometimes even changed the way they treated their wards. The corporal punishment that prison authorities inflict on their hapless wards is an abomination, and I was glad that I could persuade some of them to acknowledge their error and try to work in a more humane way.
I reflect on the hours I spent behind prison walls as a great learning experience. Learning of others’ pain is one of the better ways, I believe, to remain determinedly human.
My other object was to underline the uncompromising nature of human rights that every person, in all circumstances, was entitled to. It was far beyond my power to guarantee it to every person, but by insisting on overtly displaying it to American prisoners I hoped to generate a broader awareness of among the entire prison population. I knew I had created some talk, when the prison wardens spoke of their surprise and sometimes even changed the way they treated their wards. The corporal punishment that prison authorities inflict on their hapless wards is an abomination, and I was glad that I could persuade some of them to acknowledge their error and try to work in a more humane way.
I reflect on the hours I spent behind prison walls as a great learning experience. Learning of others’ pain is one of the better ways, I believe, to remain determinedly human.
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