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Gov. Kay Ivey, on Monday, released her Christmas message to Alabamians. It was nice. A fine message about love and giving and caring for one another, especially those who might be struggling.
It really was a needed message, and I hope it’s one we all – myself included – take to heart over the coming year, and beyond.
And to that end, I would like to ask one thing of Kay Ivey: Please apply that message to the men and women in Alabama’s prisons.
Look, I’m not asking this in some “gotcha” way, in which I try to turn what was likely a heartfelt message into political grandstanding. Truly, that’s not the goal.
The only goal is to just remind Ivey, and all other state officials, that we have failed repeatedly and with seeming indifference to uphold the tenets of Christianity when it comes to our incarcerated people. There is no love. There is no giving. There is no caring for those who are struggling.
Because, trust me, no one is struggling more right now than the people in our prisons.
Just a few days ago, I wrote a story about a lawsuit filed that alleges a young man was kidnapped, tortured, beaten, raped and murdered within one of our prisons. He was held for two days. According to a source within the prison – someone I spoke with – this happened despite at least some prison officials being warned it was taking place and despite alleged measures in place that should have prevented any of it from occurring.
This was not an isolated event.
You should read some of the emails I get. You should see some of the photos and videos I receive. Some of them come from GUARDS. Guards who are disgusted by what’s taking place but who are helpless to correct many of the absolute horrors they witness on a daily basis out of fear of retribution.
I know full well that these incidents aren’t unknown to the governor’s office, nor are they unknown to the attorney general’s office or the Alabama Department of Corrections. Many of the same people who send me information are also sending it to those offices.
Maybe I’m the only one who’s opening it, I don’t know. But I do know we can’t go on calling ourselves a state governed by Christian principles and invoking the name of Christ and the Christian spirit when it’s convenient, and then turn a blind eye to the cruel and indecent treatment of our fellow humans.
We’re not being tough on crime by allowing humans to languish in unbearable conditions and with barely enough food to eat. We’re being cruel and uncaring. And I believe both of those things are mentioned often in the Bible we quote from.
You know, what bothers me most, I think, is that it wouldn’t even cost more to clean up our prisons, to turn them into the “corrections” system they’re supposed to be, to start treating the men and women within them with dignity and respect so they can learn to also exhibit those attributes. Because it costs just as much to run a bad prison system as it does to run a good prison system.
Hell, in our case, it might cost less. Think of the millions we’d save on federal lawsuits if we actually operated humane, safe, rehabilitation-minded prisons.
It’s not like such a thing is impossible. Other states have achieved this. And check this out: those states with the best prison systems, they all happen to have lower crime rates than Alabama.
So, we’re treating people worse than we’d treat dogs. We’re paying through the nose to fight lawsuit after lawsuit, including one brought by the Trump Department of Justice that alleges our prisons are literally torture chambers. We have one of the worst recidivism rates in the nation. And even though we act as if our hellhole prisons are really a super-secret plan to be tough on crime, we actually have a higher crime rate than those with better prisons.
Why are we choosing this?
Look, I’m not asking that people who break the law live a life of luxury. But there’s a lot of ground between that and state sponsored sexual torture and murder.
So what I am asking is that this Christmas and beyond, as we’re remembering to care for those who are struggling, let’s not forget those people in that prison system. Let’s not forget that they’re people too. Let’s not forget that their suffering is at our hands, because we, the taxpayers, are determining their plights as long as they’re locked up.
Let’s not forget to also be a light for them.
