I went to Attica today for my prisoners' rights class. It was my first time ever going to a prison. One of the most memorable moments of the tour happened when we were going through the kitchen and the smell of the food almost made me vomit. All the meals are made in one facility, flash frozen, and delivered to all the prisons state-wide to be thawed and served. They used to have farms nearby the facility that would provide the food for the prison, but they closed them down to switch to the way they do it now. It costs $2.50 to feed each prisoner per day.

It was also apparent that every guard that I saw was a white male, and a large population of the prisoners were black (there are no female prisoners in Attica). There is tear gas in the ceilings of the mess hall so they can clear out the room quickly if necessary, and you can be keep locked (kept in your cell for 23 hours a day) if you sit or step on the equipment in the metal yard, or if you touch the barber's tools. The highest paying job is in the metal yard at $40 every two weeks. Your also not allowed to talk in the corridors. No one seemed to talk at all while we were there, other than the guards. Some of the guards that hold the keys are locked within cells themselves so that no one can gain access to them. The prisoners are not allowed access to the internet or computers at all.

The officer giving the tour also said that the higher the education level of the inmate, the less likely he is to come back. When I asked if they had college correspondence courses, I was told that there is a small amount available. There used to be more available, but Federal and State laws were passed to preclude felons from obtaining financial aid. I asked what the thinking behind that was, considering the effect of education on recidivism rates, and the guard responded that taxpayers don't want to have to pay for prisoners to get a college education, seeing as it already costs taxpayers $35,000 per year, per prisoner. This argument didn't really make sense to me considering that you'd be paying more in the long-term, and I indicated as much, but he was pretty blustery about the point and just mentioned taxpayers again.

At the end of our tour, we were able to talk to one of the prisoners. I didn't quite get his full name, so I won't attempt it now. He was a really tall guy. He looked like an NBA player; he actually used to play basketball in high school. He was 31 and has been locked up for 12 years. He's serving a sentence of 25 to life for second degree murder. As mentioned, he was playing basketball in high school and had a chance to get a scholarship, but he fell in with the wrong crowd, dropped out in his last year, got involved with the wrong stuff, and ended up killing someone. He didn't know they were dead right away, so it sounds like something that was unintentional. Even though he turned himself in, after being on the run, he was still given the maximum sentence, despite not having a prior record. This guy seemed like a good guy to me, and it broke my heart to hear his story. He has an 11 year old daughter who he tries to support while in prison, and he's taken responsibility for his life choices. I know that what he did was wrong...and this is true of most prisoners...but at the same time I can also recognize how easy it is to mess up. All it takes is that one wrong decision that you can't take back.