*Between the time the prison employee called the names of the five visitors to be taken ahead of the group I was in and them actually being taken to the visiting room, everything came to a sudden stop as the prison employees yelled at us to stay where we were and then all the prison employees ran from the building where we had entered toward the prison. I learned later that there had been an announcement - ALL INMATE ON THE GROUND ALL INMATES ON THE GROUND - because some prison employee had mistakenly thought there was something wrong. Imagine being ordered to lie on the ground when it is raining and flooded. But apparently any prison employee can order prisoners to do so at any time for any or no reason.
Along with every other visitor yesterday, I was compelled to walk a long distance outside in the rain. Prison employees, however, were wearing heavy black hooded raincoats with "BOP" emblazoned in large white letters on the back.
We were wet by the time we entered the cold air-conditioned visiting room. And when Gary and the other prisoners were allowed to come in, they were wet, too. In a large room full of people - human beings - the only ones who were not wet were the ones who are least human: the prison employees.
This was repeated throughout the day, and in reverse upon leaving. Small children were soaked. Some were carried by their mothers, who tried unsuccessfully to shelter them. Handicapped and senior citizens, along with the young and healthy, were wet. Both visitors and prisoners shared the style of the day, with their clothes darker from the shoulders down to chest area or lower (depending on how quickly they were able to walk and how hard it was raining) and their hair, shoes and feet wet. Wet also means cold. Yet all the prison employees were warm and dry. I noticed one of them had on a light hooded jacket under the heavy hooded raincoat, and when he went out into the storm, he covered his head with both hoods. But they were all oblivious to the wrongness of what they were doing to the visitors and prisoners. It was like a bonus for them - they got the pleasure of enacting an additional penalty yesterday: If prisoners wanted to see their visitors, they would do it while wet and cold; and if visitors wanted to see our imprisoned loved ones - husbands, daddies, sons, brothers - we would have to do it while wet and cold.
JB: These prison guards are sadistic, Judy! I'm shaking my head in disbelief.
JW: The storms continued throughout the time I was visiting Gary. During a period when the rain lightened and the prison employees gave visitors an opportunity to leave, Gary and I decided I should leave. I was wet when I got back to the building where I retrieved my umbrella, which I used on the way to my rental car, which I then drove through some of the most frightening storms I have experienced (and I have been driving for close to 40 years). Four different emergency weather alerts were conveyed on my phone while I was in Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi, as rain and lightning were blinding at times and strong winds made driving very difficult. You may be aware that eleven people were killed in a tornado an hour or so west of Forrest City yesterday/Sunday and the count was up to 15 by Monday.
I am sharing these details so the weather conditions will be clear, as well as how horribly wrong and abusive it is for prison employees to treat visitors and prisoners the way we were treated during the awful weather. We are HUMAN BEINGS. Anyone with a single brain cell or a heart would realize that. Look at what prisoners and their families are put through, making it as difficult as possible to maintain relationships with people we LOVE. And yet, we go to visit them, even knowing how abusive the prison employees are.
JB: It's perfectly understandable if prisoners and their families are completely cynical and enraged. This system is broken and corrupt and an embarrassment to a supposedly civilized society. It'll be amazing if everyone doesn't get a bad case of pneumonia or worse. Anything you'd like to add before we close?
JW: I couldn't have said it any better than you just did, Joan. Thank you for your interest and for helping expose what goes on and what the federal prison system is really like.
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