By: Pat Amberson
Pennsylvania's prison guards are the sludge of the earth.
They'd like to be the scum of the earth, but scum floats at the
top of the rancid puddle. Sludge sinks to the bottom.
Pennsylvania's prison guards are certainly on the bottom.
Prison guards (or most of them, at least) occupy the rung just above lawyers and cops, just below a drunk's puke. But prison guards have an extremely significant effect on our whole society. Their effect is hidden and subtle. Nonetheless, it is profound. It's a very bad effect. With training, it could become a good effect. Prison guards are the principal influence on prisoners. Prison guards are the "treatment" which makes prisoners more or less bad. Since Pennsylvania has such very bad prison guards, prisoners are made worse. When the prisoners leave their confinement, they hate society even more than they did when they entered prison. As a result of that hostility, they behave even more destructively. Guards are the cause of much of the evil in our society. The maelstrom of murder in Philadelphia can be traced in part to the conduct of prison guards. Former prisoners are so angry and resentful that they're getting even - with anybody! Prison is a kind of university. Prisoners are educated in crime. Prisoners are also made more resentful, hostile and violent against society. Prison guards play a very big part in encouraging prisoners to retaliate against society when they're released. To the prisoner, guards represent two things, authority and society. The worse the guards behave, the worse the guards treat the prisoners, the more vindictive the prisoners become to the society as a whole. There are about two and a half million prisoners in the United States. No other nation has as many. It's a very big business. Another five million persons have spent time in prison, in the University of Crime. When they get out of prison, and eventually almost all prisoners get out, they resent the society. They want to get even with it. They want to take revenge. Prison guards cause that. Prison guards are the sludge of the earth. Most of them are defective personalities. What kind of persons would seek jobs as prison guards? What kind of persons obtain satisfaction from locking-up and tormenting other human beings? They must be frustrated bullies, sludge of the earth! In most places prison guards are trained. Their training is all wrong. It has the wrong focus, the wrong objectives and the wrong philosophy. As a result, the guards' effect on prisoners is to make them angry, resentful and vindictive. The guards make prisoners want to get even. Guards should be trained to do just the opposite. For example, I know a young twerp, a prison guard I'll call Geraldi. He's a bizarre looking effeminate guy who thinks he's a mafioso, tough and abusive, definately sludge! In reality, Geraldi is a pathetic excuse for a man, rude, aggressive and a bully. But Geraldi's abusive conduct has an influence on the prisoners he contacts. He makes the prisoners more resentful. When those prisoners are released, they'll be angry against the society which Geraldi represents. Geraldi gives the impression that he was an abused acolyte who objected to being spit out by an Irish priest. It made him realize that he's inferior. The rejected acolyte struggled to get a job as a prison guard. It wasn't easy for him, but it was an attractive option. There are all those men in prison. Some of them are naked. All guards, not just the Geraldi ilk should be trained much more effectively. Now the guards are taught to be afraid, to bully and to treat prisoners contemptibly. Like Republicans, the trainers aren't bright enough to realize that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There's cause and effect. The effect of guards' training is for former prisoners to strike back when they can. They become more criminal. Guards need to set an example, a good example. They must treat prisoners with respect, interest and concern. A guard's philosophy should be to make a prisoner a better citizen, not to use the prisoner as a prop for the guard's diseased ego. The guard should do good for the prisoner. The whole prison system should endeavor to lift the prisoner out of crime, not to use him as a whipping boy. The prisoner will want to do something when he's released. The University of Crime should educate him to want to conduct himself in a decent, civilized way. We can hardly blame Geraldi and his type. They are as much victims as the prisoners are. They should be better trained. The ones with serious psychological problems should receive therapy. Most importantly of all, prison managers should require the staff to conduct itself in ways which benefit the society.
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