This morning I woke up from a dream of being free – to the nightmare of being incarcerated.
As I went to the community bathroom to take care of my hygiene like every morning, I walked past a man named Morris Martin who has been incarcerated over forty years – forty-four to be exact. I first met him twenty years ago when I came to prison. At the time I was nineteen and didn’t really understand the reality of what it meant to have life without the possibility of parole.
Morris did, because he had been living it for twenty four years already. He took a liking to me and started working with me on appealing my case as well as teaching me about surviving in prison. Morris and I have been together at several different facilities over the course of my twenty years, and he is one of the men who has borne witness to my transformation from a savage boy to a righteous man. While he has seen my transformation, I have witnessed his physical deterioration.
This morning when I walked past Morris I saw the look of a man who is being tortured in the name of so called justice. I see how incarceration is slowly eating away at his soul. A once strong and vibrant man is now a feeble senior citizen. The thing I love most about Morris is, he is always in good spirits and still fighting for freedom. Not just his, but also the freedom of others.
As I looked at him, tears formed in my eyes because I saw him losing the fight to father time. The worst fear of every prisoner is dying in prison, but in reality most of us with life or long indeterminate sentences will do just that – die in prison. The saddest part is, after decades in prison, one isn’t a threat to society like the ones who profit off our enslavement would like you to believe.
Often times I find myself questioning the real motive of this injustice system. At what point does this become torture? The daily dehumanization of incarceration takes a toll on the strongest person’s mind, so imagine what it does to those who are not mentally strong. Yes, it breaks them. I see it every day as I walk the yard filled with prisoners on psychotropic medication because the torture of incarceration has robbed them of their sanity.
I refuse to let it be me. My body may be locked up, but my mind will forever be free. The days of me being mentally enslaved are over. TAKE THE CHAINS OFF!!! I just hope that one day we can take the chains off the minds of those in society who see death by incarceration as justice. There is no justice in torturing a person to death. To all my brothers and sisters who are trapped on these modern day slave plantations, I feel your pain. Keep fighting – better days are coming!
The race is not given to the swift nor the strong – but the one who can endure to the end. Peace.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Quentin Jones works with incarcerated writers. He strives to inspire minds and bring change to a flawed system – one designed to eat away at the heart and soul of society. “I will be happy if I can simply inspire someone to become a better person. As a society, we need to challenge ourselves to become better people. We need a lot more LOVE and a lot less HATE.”
Quentin can be contacted at:
Quentin Jones #302373
Gus Harrison Correctional Facility
2727 East Beecher Street
Adrian, MI 49221-3506
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