Member-only story
A Look Inside the Prison Hellscape
This is a piece I wrote in 2020 about America’s prison system.
In 2016, I visited a Montgomery County prison and the experience completely stunned me. It had been one thing to just know about and read accounts of the legal injustices in this country, how many African Americans get unfairly arrested, and given unreasonable sentences, but actually seeing firsthand the results of these practices left me feeling guilty for having known so little for so long.
98% of all the inmates I saw were African American, and the man guiding me through the prison was proud of his indifference to them. He literally stood by and grinned as an inmate, completely naked, slammed himself against the steel bars of his cell for two or three minutes before getting on the ground and drinking from the toilet. The man guiding me, somehow a Captain, passively watched all this happen and showed no hint of concern. He then brought me to a different room and proceeded to laugh at a man who was talking with the multiple voices inside of his head, clearly not fit for a prison in the first place.
In a different room, the Captain casually brought up how these specific people had only been given short sentences initially but, usually in trying to defend themselves from sexual assault or violence, ended up stuck with years and years. As if it was nothing at all, he told…
