June 10, 1991 - El Paso Herald-Post

The inhumane form of punishment in prison

The humidity of late May in Bloomington is heavy upon the body. Indiana University is a handsome campus, and the surrounding town has a bit of the 1950s to it.

The state - named after Indians has no Indians to speak of. Very few blacks walk about, and perhaps even fewer Chicanos. The many blacks at ICOPA V seemed to have been there from some other state or nation, and the Native Americans in attendance had come from such nations as the Navajo, Mescalero-Apache, Ogalala and Akwesasne.

The discomfort felt was a mere consequence of weather, not one caused by the turbulence of meetings and presentations of papers.

Poetry and literature figured in one panel on "Prison Resistance Writing," and the underlying notion was about retaining one's sanity by writing within the chaos and hostility of an organized and sanctioned institution designed to destroy the person, to dehumanize the convict and dispassionately domesticate a human spirit - all in the name of justice, within the state-ordained malice which is weighted against the poor, against peoples of color and destitute whites.

The compulsion to punish, to abuse, is strong within most institutional frameworks worldwide. That need is not just an American phenomenon, yet there are already movements in Europe addressing such a devastating process of depersonalization.

The fact that an international body can form and meet to discuss alternatives to our horrendous prison structures is salutary, for it will be through much dialogue that humanity will move closer to the ideals envisioned by humane and caring beings who value life in the fullest sense of the word: All peoples are beautiful and we must cease reacting as if we were unevolved brutes hiding in caves or swinging from trees. We are sentient beings capable of finding better ways to resolve our conflicts then merely resorting to blood vengeance.

The courage of a Matthew Stephens working as a chaplain in prisons and the wisdom of a Porter Kirkwood in a classroom buttress the resolve of a Linda Thurston or a Hal Pepinski to call for transformation.

Fay Honey Knopp, a Quaker prison abolitionist and feminist, is a caring sentient being who's been at the forefront of fighting a racist system for about 50 years. Such dedication bodes well for the future, as visionaries are a creative godsend to humankind. Mediation and restorative justice in our conflicts with one another can do more for society than a hyperreactive justice system which abuses power in a most criminally insane fashion. Professor Pepinski writes that alternatives to punishment are well established and workable, if only we have the political will to use them more."

Along with the idea of justice is the other equally compelling one of peace, and a new place to pursue such ideas was opened in Bloomington: The Bloomington Peace and Justice Center which was poetically inaugurated.

There was much celebrating at ICOPA V, and it was within the idea of our "learning to walk in beauty" with one another as we shared viewpoints and differences, trying to better understand how to work with one another. There was much patience expressed, as well as the knowledge that too many people worldwide are being destroyed by political expediency, exploitation and neocolonialism.

I heard during a presentation that a dear friend and fellow poet, Etheridge Knight, had died recently.... (Continues next week).