March 23, 2012
What Daniel Calls "Ignorance," I Call "Bliss"
I see Sharon Daniel's point, I really do. And I would never be one to say that dehumanizing practices should be condoned, because that's just "inhumane." But I do take a slight issue with her idea that the public needs to strip away this veil of ignorance and see the reality. I don't necessarily think the public is completely unaware of what happens in prisons, I think they could give you a really awfully violent answer were you to ask, they just prefer not to think about it. It's an intentional "out of sight out of mind" type of situation. And can you really blame them? People don't like to think about their taxpayers dollars going towards prison inmates "cushy" lifestyles. They also don't like to think of their money used for inhumane practices. So the solution? Let's not think about it! It sounds wrong, I know, but we tell ourselves what we must in order to put a complacent smile on our faces for the day. Daniel seems to really believe in the ignorance of people, and by showing these conditions, she's hoping some great enlightenment and sense of pity will sweep upon us all. I looked at this case for class, because I was required to and then blog about it. Why would anyone else? Not to say it's not interesting, because it definitely is. But why would someone who's so content pretending unawareness suddenly want to become aware? It sounds so completely wrong, but I'm telling you, people don't care about prison inmates. Unless of course you know one personally. They're seen as a menace to society, hence their crime? Whether they deserve it or not, people simply don't want to acknowledge the issue. It is rather unpleasant and they've more important things to think about, like what to make for dinner.
8 comments:
I think that when looking at this piece we need to take into account the special circumstance of women in prison. I think a lot of people know what goes on in prison, but when they think of those things their minds default to men's prisons and the violence and conditions they imagine there. When dealing with women's prisons not only are the conditions inside the prison different and experienced differently, the events leading up to incarceration are experienced differently, and women who commit crimes are often more negatively perceived and face more social fallout afterward.
Well, they do say, "Ignorance IS bliss"
I believe that Daniel is working beyond what literally happens in prisons. She wants to address the injustice of the system as a whole. She says that the prison system is an "easy out" that allows society to be ignorant about "systemic injustice, social inequality, and the crippling effects of poverty," which are directly correlated to crime. Criminals are often victims of their environment and circumstances. I have heard this sort of rhetoric before, and I deeply sympathize with the cause. I'm sure Daniel would not say that no crime should ever be punished, but that the prison system is severely flawed and not productive in creating a better society.
I think it is crucial for people to become aware of social injustices and not simply write off a look at the prison system because we don't care about what happened/s to criminals. Daniel is calling for humanity, and I'm always down for that.
Rachel I completely agree. I think ignorance plays a huge role in separating "us" from "them," and I would even go as far as to say it separates "us" from the truth. Society as a whole prefers to stick to preconceived notions about inmates and prison, rather than push beyond that and have to actually see the injustice. Because then, we might actually have to do something about it.
I don't think Daniel is saying the public doesn't know what's going on. I think she's saying it's a problem that we don't care. She's trying to get us to empathize with these women (over using men.. a good strategy) by hearing their voices, their individual stories.
Sure, they've committed crimes, I mean they are in prison. But is it really necessary to deny women ice cubes in their drinks when it's over 100 degrees outside? Any other day they can get ice cubes no problem, but not on those days. These guards feel the need to deny these women simple comforts only because they can. What does that say about the people running these prisons? And what does it say about us that we let them?
And what about the specific situations of their crime? Does someone in jail for using drugs really deserve the same dehumanizing treatment as a serial murderer? What if they're mentally ill and didn't know better but still got locked up?
Maybe I wouldn't care about prisoners if I thought punishment was administered fairly. But it's not. And it's not because people would rather ignore the situation completely because it's complicated and uncomfortable. So maybe, just maybe if people would hear these women speak out, they would be more willing to work toward a fairer justice system.
Rachel, although I agree that much of society does not wish to hear the perspective of these prison inmates, I think that is precisely Daniel's point in orchestrating this project. I find your post problematic because you seem to be defending the irresponsibility of ignorance, because it is "easier." This position eliminates the agency of each of these women's testimonies, your post deconstructs them as nothing more than inmates, people who's voices cannot be heard outside the prison system. You post frames them as nothing more than characters of Daniel's "novel". Not individual voices.
In this way I think your post illistrates the danger of viewing DanieI's case as heteroglossia, because we concentrate on her organization of these voices and not the individuals themselves.
These are not characters, these are not inmates using out "tax dollars," these people are women, many of them mothers, many of them sisters, intellectuals, hurt and abused victims of a prison system that is REAL, not a made up hell in a novel, but a true institution thriving on abusing and isolating these people in order to reprogram them instead of rehabilitating them.
I think that some people in our society are ignorant by choice to the injustices of the prison system, but I think many (and this perhaps is the focal group Daniel is targeting though her project) have never considered seeing prisoners as more than inmates, or thought about how naive and ignorant it is to assume that by removing the freedom of "menaces to society" and abusing their psyches we will at the end result of this practice, have "reformed citizens."
Life Lesson of mine: If it sounds wrong, It probably is wrong. I am sure the authors realized their is an unawareness about this issue. That is probably why they created this site. Even if it only affects one reader, from one class that was assigned this project, I think the author's would feel
The flaws in the prison system and the judicial system should be brought to everyone's mind. You may not feel pity in your current understanding of the concept of 'criminal'. As I read through many of the cases I noticed that some of the crimes these woman are incarcerated do not make them dangerous to the others.
Many of the ladies are being kept from worship, their children, their lives, for a crime as pathetic as using "dope." The shocking thing is, some women tell us that if they wanted to get drugs on the inside, they could, and then they admit to the reader that they don't want to. This is inhumane. Addicts are not worthless, hopeless criminals who deserve to be caged like animals. They are human beings who have a disease. If our tax dollars are to do anything to create "justice", it should be in establishing detox clinics, substance abuse education, and new studies into the treatment of addiction.
Ignorance is bliss, until you loose that bliss, and then it becomes irritating when you see others who still carry it.
That's the feel that I got from Daniel's piece. I don't think that she truly believes that people have absolutely no clue what kind of awful things happen in prison (the media, both fictional and not, tend to highlight the negative) but I think she became aware of how bad the situation was and wanted to break that illusion that she perceives others to have, and some people do. She knows it's not pleasant, and she knows that the first reaction that people will have is "I don't want to think about it", and that's why this kind of awareness spreading is such a thankless job.
I don't think she's asking for us to all become activists on the issue, but just putting the information out there and using the voices of others is meant to spread awareness. No, it's not comfortable, and no it's not and fun, and of course we all have to be able to continue function on a daily level after we receive the information, but the whole point of making people more aware of what's happening is to point out that there are people who don't have the life option of choosing ignorance over bliss. They don't get to pretend that bad things don't happen, because that's what they live every day. We can at least be aware of it, not pretend it's not real, and think on it a bit, I think, even if we don't all become activists.
I would argue with a few things mentioned by everybody on this issue. Not that anything anyone said is invalid. These are just my opinions.
First, I want to address what someone said earlier about how unfair it is for a murderer to receive the same unjust treatment as someone who committed a minor crime. I would argue that this is probably false. When we think about unjust treatment of inmates, I think it is really important to remember that the justice system in prison is promoted by more than just the warden and guards. There is a different system in place behind the scenes. I mean, haven't you guys ever seen prison movies? Men and women in prison have a code of conduct to adhere to in prison. For example, a woman who strangled her children is likely to be treated coldly and cruelly by her fellow inmates (perhaps rightly so). And a woman who stole a car might be well-liked. So I think in that way, the justice system balances itself out.
Also, I am not saying I have no pity, but I think that the inmates "brutal" treatment may not be that brutal. And to address the ice cube thing- I have to ask, so what? They don't get ice cubes in their water. Is that cruel? When I used to cut the grass for my mom and she would bring me water, was there ice in it? Sometimes. But I never found myself aghast at her cruelty when she deprived me of ice. And yeah, I was hot. But water sufficed. And I never even committed a crime. Didn't I deserve ice? I don't know, I guess my point here is that many people don't get the luxuries that people in prison find themselves feeling deprived of. And to be honest, I care more about the people who are deprived of those things and have not committed a crime.
So I think I'm not saying that prison treatment is not important. I just think that maybe we need to look at the mistreatment and injustice going on in prison and ask ourselves how we define "unjust."
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