Drifting on a Memory
By: Cazper
Santa Ana Califas
MATERIALS USED: Black ink on a 15x15 inch white cloth handkerchief.
CONVICTED ARTS
Hour Glass
By: Cazper
Santa Ana Califas
MATERIALS USED: Black ink on a 15x15 inch white cloth handkerchief.
CONVICTED ARTS
"Hoodwinkers"
By: Smokey
El Paso Tejas
Materials Used: Black ink on a 15x15 inch white cloth handkerchief.
THE FOLSOM STATE PRISON EXPERIENCE
It was a quiet calm Monday afternoon inside Folsom Prison wall. I felt uneasy with the peacefulness around me knowing, that this is a level four prison and violence could occur at any moment, but I pushed the negative thoughts aside and continued on discussing strategy for our next soccer game.
Our peacefulness was broken with the sound of an alarm. Within seconds, the loud speaker on the yard announced, “Yard down!” Everybody rushed to find a decent spot to sit down. After four years in prison, I still get startled hearing the threatening announcement, “Yard down!”
As I sat and worried, thoughts rushed through my mind, “I wonder is this a false alarm or did someone really got hurt.” I sat in dazed wonder and watched all the correctional officers in a confused state running to the place of the alarm. This time someone did get hurt. A stretcher rushed by with an inmate lying on his stomach motionless, blood flowing from his neck and from the side of his stomach. Medical personnel tried to stop the blood, but it didn’t work.
Did something he did warrant such a punishment? I sat there in disbelief thinking. Did he have a chance to explain himself before he was attacked? My confused mind kept questioning, “Did he know it was coming and did he have a chance to talk to his loved ones before this happened?” I know his mom is crying over his suffering - just like mine would.
Why can’t we look at another human being and see that that person is also in the same sort of pain and sadness like everyone else? Why do we have to show how tough and macho we are by hurting someone else. I am sick and tired of all this macho tough image crap. I wonder if he is going to make it. All these questions I have will never be answered because I am afraid to know.
Note: I found out later that he did survive the attack.
Mike D.
CALIFORNIA
