Basim Floro is imprisoned at Oregon State Penitentiary. This article is an excerpt from a book he’s writing about his incarceration at Oregon state correctional facilities. Read more of Floro’s writing.
Damn, will life ever be the same? That’s the thought many people incarcerated think when they step behind these bars.
Sadly, their families have the same thoughts as their family members are being sentenced and on their way to prison. The only hope for our loved ones is that while we are incarcerated behind these bars we can get rehabilitation and become better fathers, brothers or sons so that if we are blessed with the opportunity to be back in our communities, we can be respectful members of our society.
I do have a biased outlook on the Oregon Department of Corrections because of the corruption and injustice I and others have had to endure during our incarcerations. I write about these experiences I and others have dealt with during our stays in prison. I’ve been to seven different prisons, and I’ve been in prison five-plus years.
Do not get me wrong — I am not anti-prison. I do believe that it serves a purpose. A person that chooses to commit a crime in their community has to face the sentence the justice system seems fit for the actions they have made.
But the way people are being treated in these facilities that they are sent to is wrong, and change needs to be made.
In the first episode of “Walled In,” a podcast co-produced by Street Roots and The Exiled Voice, former prisoners and a criminologist explore the impact of violence experienced in prison. [Listen]
This is not only for the people who are incarcerated in these prisons, but also for the people back home in our communities. There are a bunch of young men coming into our prison system every day like a revolving door that never ends. Instead of getting the rehabilitation the department promises the taxpayers, they give lies and false truths. Now you have men that are left to survive on their own and many are forced to follow men that should not be leaders. Now these men, who many are not even violent offenders, are forced to be affiliated with gangs and violence to survive on the inside.
And yet for prisoners who make a choice not to accept that path, the most likely outcome will be long-term segregation (solitary confinement), not to punish them, but for their own safety.
Twenty-three hours a day in a cell is a punishment, no matter how much DOC tries to twist the outlook of the situation.
Now, you might ask yourself, why does this affect me?
Well, the majority of people housed in the prison system have a release date. That means that these men are coming back to our communities with the knowledge they have learned in prison. That’s why rehabilitation in the prison system is so important. The safer our prison systems are, the safer our communities will be.
I only want the best for the men in these facilities and their loved ones on the outside.