Journal 5/17/25
I found out last night that the library changed its hours. It is no longer open on Wednesday afternoon, evenings or on Sundays. If inmates are being put in prison for punishment & rehabilitation, the US federal system is long on the former and extremely short on the latter. Here are some suggestions from a prisoner’s point of view to increase the rehabilitation aspect of prison (shouldn’t that be the primary goal of not only the prison system, but also society in general?).
1) Rework our prison tablets – the only thing are prison tablets can currently be used for is downloading music & videos, listening to the radio, use it as a calculator, connecting to TV’s, or playing games. I think they should start offering the following on these tablets:
a) Offer Word, Excel and PowerPoint (or the Google equivalent) so that inmates can more easily take classes, write reports, develop plans, create presentations, etc.
b) Allow them to be connected to email. Currently, we often have to wait in line to use the email. If prisoners could write emails from their own tablet while sitting in their unit, that would increase communication between prisoners and their family, friends & support system outside of prison. This decreases the likelihood of families breaking apart over time and therefore, more likely giving them a home when they get out and reducing recidivism. Maybe they could write it in Word and then cut & paste it into the email – making it quicker for them to get the email out.
c) Allow for access to Facetime or Zoom so inmates can better and more effectively communicate with their families.
d) Put e-books on the tablet so that books can be read on it. This should increase the number of books available to read above & beyond what is currently available in the prison library (which just cut the number of hours it is open).
e) Put GED & educational materials, homework and practice test on the tablet. This helps those who are studying for their GED. It would also more easily allow inmates who are working on an associates or bachelor’s degree to get advanced education.
f) Give access to podcasts on the tablet. Most podcasts I listen to are educational in nature.
g) Offer family-friendly videos or give some sort of limited access to Netflix or Prime – at a cost covered by the inmate.
2) “Aggressive” education and apprenticeships – As you can see by the first paragraph in this journal, it is obvious that the BOP is not interested in allowing for maximum access to books or other educational materials. We have heard CO’s publicly state that they don’t understand why we are given access to educational materials or offered classes. There is an excellent educational facility in the bottom floor of FMC Lexington, but it is virtually empty at all times. The reason – there are no CO’s interested in conducting the classes or supervising classes offered by inmates (known as ACE classes). They especially don’t want to offer classes in the morning or early afternoon – the time when most inmates want to take them. I propose incentivising CO’s for offering classes and for graduating a certain percentage of the attendees. If you want something to happen, you need to incentivize the decision-makers. On top of that, aggressively offer apprenticeship classes on things like welding, construction, plumbing & HVAC. By that, I mean make sure that there are multiple different classes offered each day and if there are enough students on the list, two of the same class the same day. Prisons should be benchmarked against one another to be sure that they are taking this seriously and assisting/encouraging inmates to be taking classes that will practically guarantee a good-paying job when they are out of prison as opposed to not having any training and trying to survive on wages from a fast food job. If the prison cannot find someone from outside the prison to teach the class, find inmates who are incarcerated and let them teach the apprenticeship class. Do whatever needs to be done to make sure the classes are being taught and inmates are incentivized to take them and pass them. Inmates who are not attending classes or taking it seriously, should not be allowed in the classes and they are not allowed any additional time off.
3) Originally, FSA classes were designed so that by taking the classes, you got time off your sentence. Because the back-log for taking classes is so long, it has evolved so that you “get credit” for taking the class, even if you have not taken it. Lots of guys decline when the class is offered to them so that they go back to the bottom of the list – knowing that they get credit just for being on the list. Part of this I understand, but those who actually take the class should get more credit off since they took the class. I am currently in two FSA classes & am signed up for all for which I can be signed up. The same things goes for ACE classes – because these are classes taught by inmates, we don’t actually get any credit towards time-off, even though we should get credit because the two classes I have taken thus far have been very informative.
4) We should get more library time. I don’t know how many times I have gone to library at 8 am on Sunday morning (when it is supposed to be open) and it is closed. It isn’t open on Saturdays. Giving inmates the opportunity read as opposed to watching a bunch of TV or just playing card/board games can only be a good thing. I am rarely in the library when there isn’t at least one other person in there and have seen as many as six or seven others in there at the same time.
5) There should be rewards for reading. I am currently doing book reports on the books I read for PrisonProfessorsTalent.com. It would be good if we got credit for these and it led to additional time off. So far, I have read about 75 books and did reports on 56 of them. My goal is to do 100 book reports by the end of the year. Nearly all of them have been self-help, history or classics like Moby Dick, Lord of the Flies, The Great Gatsby, Jane Eyre, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Gulag Archipelago, etc. My mind has expanded as a result of these books.
There are a great many of inmates in prison who have, on their own initiative, taken the rebilitation aspect of prison to heart & it would be good if I (and others like me) got credit for this that leads to an earlier release.
