A FB Post from a Guard in an Ohio Prison

People who have been treated less then human will come home dehumanized. We can not expect a person who has been subjected to never being called by their name, never being shown respect for themselves or their things, being told day in and day what a piece of shit they are to come home and act appropriate, to think everything is flowers and rainbows. To come home and not be able to get a job and then not revert to old habits . The same companies that will use Prison labor (at a very minimum cost) to produce their product will not hire the same people once released who were working for slave wages on the inside. Why won't they? They wont because they are Felons, the same man or woman , the same Felon on the inside working for pennies on the dollar to big name companies are not employable by said companies when they return home with families to help support and society to prove wrong because they are Felons, there debt is never paid off and neither is their families. Their families will suffer monetarily because if the offender is able to secure employment it will probably be low paying, the family will also suffer because with society's stigma of felons the individual is more likely to reoffend to be able to support the family and even themselves. We have to better as a society for all our people. We are not allowed to disregard a person because of race, sexual orientation, male or female citizen, non citizen but yet we discriminate because of a felony . When a person goes to prison their debt to society is being paid, no it doesn’t make the crime go away but they are punished for it. When they are released supposedly their debt is paid , this is not true. Society continues to make them pay , makes finding a place to live, a job nearly impossible. If they do not have a strong family background more then likely they will become homeless , and even more likely to reoffend. I used to think like the majority of society and thought "screw them, their fault" , then I went to work in a Prison . My eyes were opened I was stuck their most of the time 16 hours a day and I watched the men be disrespected by CO's White Shirts, Doctors, Mental Health Professionals. It sickened me. And people wonder why these men and women come out and act the way they do. They wonder why in prison the offenders treat each other like crap. Shit rolls down hill. It is a constant rotation of degrading human beings and regardless of their crime that is the bottom line, they are humans! When I was a CO I addressed every man by Sir or Mr. why, because I want a human walking out of those doors not an animal not someone who has NO regard for the next person, I want someone who has respect for the next human being living next door to me not someone who has no regard for human life or respect for anyone else let alone themselves. Yet this is what we make these men and women into. We make them into these people by disregarding them as humans, not addressing their mental health issues (mental illness runs rampart in the prison system, it is not addressed or helped by handing them a crossword puzzle or word search game or solitary confinement). We do not rehabilitate the incarcerated at all, we don’t allow enough if any family time, a few visits a year. People in business suits telling the people who can visit , who is important to the incarcerated. Moving the incarcerated far from their families sometimes making visits almost impossible. Prisons make money off of keeping the beds filled, each year a new budget is made off beds filled , the people waiting to fill these beds, the so called programs they have, overtime because the CO's are over worked and management and the DOC do not care because the money (your tax dollars) is there to make payroll, to house your family members your neighbors, and the people you don’t know every day for the rest of your tax paying life and their life. So when reading this and you do not think that because you don’t have loved one incarcerated this doesn’t affect you , think again!!