good prisoners , bad prisoners

[kossai]

idea of prisons fuck kossai up ever since kid . earliest introduction to idea of what prison is like - even if in somewhat " kid-friendly " form - was stories of people who did nothing wrong falsely imprisoned , where no one would hear truth . prison was bad people place , so everyone in prison was bad person , and there was no need to listen or treat as anything but .

and as learn more about prisons , that feeling of frustration and unfairness just grow . that no one should have to be trapped in this way , forced to slave labour and cut off from world , where even birdsong and sunlight is treasured commodity . genuinely work up into tears when read real accounts of these experiences .

and just like in childhood stories , some people end up in prison for exaggerated if not entirely false reasons . of course , some people really do abhorrent things , and not always sure what best answer is both to adequately discourage , and gracefully move forward when some perpetrators might never want to . to really have answers in current world would require such different kind of society that have no idea how to picture yet . but do know that really , really love initiatives which put more materials in hands of prisoners and push to improve conditions of prison life - books , communications , anything .

today find out about bull press games , which seem to mostly service US but do indeed send out tabletop games to prisoners , and love that so much . decide to poke into FAQ , and right after statements about how creativity and socialisation is basic human need , that conditions of prison drive people mad , there is this :

I don’t want to support somebody “who did something horrible”, do you work with people like that ? No, we don’t work with anybody convicted of depraved crimes like sex offenses or child abuse.

that sure put little bit of damper on enjoyment . think initiatives like this still so important to support , but . not only can these convictions sometimes just be as false and unjustified as others , but even if entirely true , think there is something extremely powerful and important in ability to say that this person commit horrible acts with horrible intentions , and still no less of person who deserve rights and fulfillment of basic needs .

maybe no amount of kindness in world could truly get someone horrendous to change ways and become beloved community member . but then , that is not limited to these 2 categories of crime , and feel kind of like weird double standard . on one hand can not help but wonder if kossai is naive , and just miss something . on other hand , truly think need to be able to stand for protection of rights and fulfillment of needs no matter what , or else what do those things really mean ?

Comments

[stepnix]

no yeah i think you're right, that is a double standard and genuinely disappointing.

there's a bit of like... we don't trust one set of "you deserve to suffer for this" judgments but then we still re-apply them in another circumstance when we feel like it. and that's really hard to stop ourselves from, but we still gotta try, right. it's still worth the effort

[kossai]

for sure . definitely understand that to lock up in prison might feel like less violent revenge fantasy against perpetrator of one's own abuse than fantasy of murder - and especially if founders of this initiative have personal experience in those areas , can understand if hold those fantasies .

but that emotional reaction is not necessarily what law and justice should come from . sometimes right thing to do is one that feel viscerally wrong inside - follow not that emotional fantasy , but that moral force which say that not even this person can be unpersoned . recognition of this fact is not support of actions or invitation to friendly brunch , just moral principle that choose to follow .