BOP SENTRY CODE: PSAP
I am currently working with Celeste Blair for the Peer Success Program and it is rapidly becoming a pilot program for the entire Bureau of Prisons. We’ve had mixed support from a lot of the staff because it is not a “top-down” initiative, but we have the backing of the Captain and our interim Warden (while we wait for the replacement). Hopefully the new warden will be just as supportive as Broton is. This Program is designed to use inmates who’ve already made progress on the journey toward successful reentry as mentors for the other women who don’t know where to begin, have too much time on their hands or don’t understand how high risk-low reward decisions can affect their choices now, and in the future. We strive to bring some light into the darkness and show them that prison doesn’t need to be a mindset that is embraced or personified. We seek to offer different opportunities so they can grow and learn about who they are and where they want to go when they leave prison. We are trying to turn the tide, one pod at a time, to create a different morale other than the proto-typical mind frame of ‘get all you can, even if you leave ruin in your wake’.
Some people, even though they work in a prison, or maybe BECAUSE they work in a prison, do not believe inmates can rise above their past mistakes. So when I went to the Education dept, trying to get them to start offering the Santos designed class, Preparing for Success After Prison, already in their SENTRY system and listed in their FSA Program Guide as a productive activity, initially I was offered help. Then another staff member intervened and rejected the idea that “they” would EVER offer a class designed by a former inmate because it was an ETHICS violation [I won’t bore anybody with the statistics of ethics violations created by BOP staff members on every compound the BOP has in the last 10 years.] to allow an ex-felon to teach a class. I was stunned, sorry to say, at the animosity in her voice. Not just because she obviously didn’t even know what the BOP listed in the FSA Program Guide, but also that she refused to believe that an ex-felon had anything to offer society, us, or them in the way of useful knowledge on how to better themselves, get out of prison, stay out of prison, or be successful after prison. Why work in the Education Dept. if you believe so heartily in our doom? Why try to educate people and enable them to support themselves when you’re firmly entrenched in our failure? It was a mystery.
But part of a prisoner’s success after prison is resiliency. How can you face a problem and figure out a way around it? So I backed away from a high risk-low reward confrontation and took it to the Associate Warden. Let her deal with the staff member. Blair and I are now working on offering the class in a self-study fashion inside the pods to ensure our mentors are properly trained and able to pass on the information to enable others to have more successful re-entries into society. If the BOP refuses to rehabilitate us, then we’ll just have to take the initiative and do it ourselves. Resiliency at its finest. Never mind that FCI-Aliceville has 15 different programs listed in the FSA Program Guide that are supposed to be offered and are not, never mind that they can’t figure out who’s going to teach what class, never mind that we’re having to rehabilitate ourselves, the ladies of the Peer Success Program are determined to be successful after prison!
