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| Augusta Correctional Center, Estaline Valley Road, Craigsville, Virginia |
October 7, 2018
I welcomed the return of the glorious sun this past week after the endless rainfall we've endured this summer. This past week I've basked in its warmth while working out, and the drier weather is beginning to lower the humidity in our cells where I've battled to keep envelopes from sticking together and the paper from wanting to become warped and rippled. Let’s hope the colder temperatures on the way do not collide with the rains that may continue or else there will be lots of school missed and roads to navigate that may keep visitors away from Estaline Valley.
I have called this little valley my residence for the last eight years and yet I often don't feel much a part of this community. Even when I attend church here I feel somewhat of a misfit because my journey includes a heritage of faith very dissimilar from what I experience here. No matter how much my heart is in tune with the songs and sermons I hear each week, others probably perceive me as disconnected. I would confess that my most spiritual moments of those evenings are the walk to and from the dining hall where I am privileged to look up and see the moon and stars twinkling or glowing bright in the black night that is aglow from the orange security lights that light my pathway. What a privilege it will be some day to look upon a midnight black sky in its awesome natural state untainted by man’s created lights.
The pastor we affectionately call 'Amen Denny' because he is continually saying the word Amen in our prison services was as animated as you could imagine last night. He is an older man in the generation we define as golden who has been serving the Lord here for over 30 years, ever since this facility opened. I know most of his stories and sermons by heart and he closes each service with some semblance of an alter call. My heritage finds that to be an unnecessary weekly event because salvation doesn’t have to move oneself physically from the back of the service to the front. It is a matter of the heart, and yet I move to the front when he includes a gathering of people who need prayer for life’s trials and physical issues. It is obvious that he wants us all to be included in the kingdom and his heart is in the right place.
Last night we marched around the dining hall to raise walls of protection for those being attacked by things that discourage us on our journey. His brief message was out of the story of David’s journey and with his adversaries Saul and Goliath. What the pastor gleaned from the story had more to do with Saul, and the truth that God desires our obedience over the sacrifices made under the law for our failures.
Those of you who are steeped in the stories of David and Saul know how often they were in conflict with each other due to Saul’s jealousy of David’s relationship with God. I believe you could argue that Saul was a far more difficult Goliath in David’s life than the actual Philistine he was able to dispatch because of God’s power within him.
Goliaths come in all shapes and sizes and they may not always take the form of a man. For eight years now I have lived within a system we call the DOC (Department of Corrections), a Goliath that I have watched intensely for almost a decade now. Much like David, I have hidden in the shadows and kept away from engaging in conflict the way David did with Saul. My silence has come at a great cost as I continue to see changes in policy that affect me.
Goliaths come in all shapes and sizes and they may not always take the form of a man. For eight years now I have lived within a system we call the DOC (Department of Corrections), a Goliath that I have watched intensely for almost a decade now. Much like David, I have hidden in the shadows and kept away from engaging in conflict the way David did with Saul. My silence has come at a great cost as I continue to see changes in policy that affect me.
Marching around that room last night was sort of a catalyst for me to begin writing out some of my feelings and emotions that others may define as opinion-based and not based in fact. There are facts, however, that cannot be disputed, and there are policies going into effect that will never change the facts or statistics of this experience. Cause and effect relationships are impacting the rehabilitation process far more than the contraband that does get inside these walls of steel, stone and twisted wire. Perhaps what I am writing will be seen as a tirade of sorts or a venting of emotions, but I assure you I have been processing each word I am writing, praying that God gives me the words I write. I am also praying that those of you who know me will keep me in your prayers and pray for the wall of protection we marched for last evening.
I will be so bold as to say that contraband entering the prisons can serve at least one useful purpose and that is to show which inmates are making positive changes in their lives and which are not making such changes. The DOC, our Goliath, labels such behaviors as correctional changes. Such inmates reject participation in contraband activities and take educational courses, do quality work for which they are paid a small wage, and seek to live uprightly which can reduce their sentence by 15 percent. I would also suggest that the DOC grant a greater percentage reduction in sentences for good behavior and attempts to learn new skills and do quality work which prepares inmates to re-enter their communities as productive citizens.
The DOC has a motto or mission statement that hangs in the visitation room. It reads: Talking together – Thinking together – Learning together – Finding common ground – Creating new meaning – Suspending judgment as we dialogue together.
This statement suggests the DOC, the Goliath, cares about connecting us offenders with our loved ones and ultimately the community, but all the recent changes in visitation procedures have only limited our access to those we love and the communities we hope to be a part of again one day. I believe Goliath needs to rewrite what the purpose of visitation is in their view.
Personally it is no longer the experience it once was. It has become a source of ionized radiation [via a full body scan] for those I love who are mostly in their 80s and do not need one more health risk added to their lives. It has become a place of physical violation of their personal space including feeling physically violated by members of their own sex who may or may not have opposite sexual orientation. Who would know? I would ask the question, At what age is it appropriate to assume that a child is able to endure the procedures witnessed in this place and the ones [that may come] we are unaware of?
The facility has been in the paper several times this year for various issues pertaining to the ability to staff the facility adequately. I can attest to the fact that there are grave issues here with keeping the proper number of officers here at a given time. I would be of the opinion that often this facility is managed on a daily basis with less than the number of officers recommended. You will, however, never get me to believe that some recent incidents were caused by the lack of officers. There is no doubt that the place is a necessary part of our society, but I despise being lumped into a group as a whole. On a camp that has a majority of sexually deviant offenders it should have been obvious that one such offender should have annual evaluations done in a secure location when being treated by a female counselor.
What has been left out of local news and papers is the effect this lack of officers is having on us as offenders. To manage the shortage, Goliath is bringing in officers from other facilities. It may fill the vacancies but it is becoming a more volatile place to live here, especially if you are of the majority and are a sex offender. Officers filling booth positions that manage the entryways of our pods are never here long enough to learn who lives in what pod and who is out of place. This leads to guys being able to sneak about stealing and extorting from sex offenders and moving contraband pod to pod.
Recently in my own pod a man had a television stolen out of his room while he was at work, and another young man was beaten up in the pod by someone connected to someone he owned money to. I have tried to help staff see systemic problems in the past leaving out individual offenders [names]. There are plenty of snitches here they can get specific names from. For eight years I have seen very few changes that work because no one will invest the time it takes to see the things I see. There are not enough officers to see the things I see, but perhaps no one cares.
I hope it is an issue with being over tasked. I believe being over tasked will continue to be a problem at this facility. I have great respect for all but a few of the officers who walk this beat everyday. Unlike most of the men here, I realize that their duties include protecting the disadvantaged here. I do not see this as a conflict between us and them, like most guys here. I am on a road of corrections, but it is a path that is getting more difficult with each passing policy, policies that are causing good staff to leave this facility. Not only officers are choosing to leave because of dysfunctions in the policies but other staff that some of us value, good people dedicated to teaching us the skills we need beyond our desert journeys… leaving because they too are fearful of the ionized radiation they are being subjected to everyday as they enter to be engaged in our lives.
I understand that Goliath doesn’t want to be sued by someone’s family when their loved one dies in here because of the drugs they overdose on. I would challenge family and friends to be more aware of what your offender is doing with his life in here. Ask yourself if you are making sacrifices in your life to give them enough support financially to support a drug addiction in prison. Be engaged enough in your own offender’s life to know what his/her needs are in a place like his. I assure you they are few. I believe with all my heart if all parties affected by these issues participate in productive conversation that somewhere there is a better place to be. A place where the sign in the visitation room [saying they are trying to make it a better place for visitors to meet with offenders] has meaning, and we as offenders and you as the public can believe it is the purpose of the Virginia Department of Corrections.
On current pace I have about 12 years left to endure my correction. I want them to be a better 12 years than what I have endured since this drug, whoops, contraband interdiction policy and practice. My heritage includes making meals together, and fellowship is defined by the sharing of a meal. I want my friends to visit without fear of being groped to the point of being violated. I want to wear a pair of blue jeans and a denim shirt to feel a sense of dignity for the few hours I spent with my family. I do not think it is too much to ask and I think it is possible to see things again the way they once were because it all has impact on the process of our rehabilitation and the way we live while we wait to go home. I believe if our route towards change had better defined goals and ways to gauge the progress it would be easier to find men and women to work here because they could believe in that purpose and find some fulfillment in their work.
At this moment it just feels like chaos regardless if you are staff or offender. I can report a staff viewpoint because I hear it all the time from them as they must work over [hours], or on their days off.
I covet your prayers of protection and I may write to you next or see you in Timbuktu if Goliath chooses to “slay” me for what I speak out about. I believe somewhere in the story of Saul and David is the point that obedience to God and to what you believe does require sacrifice. I am ready for the suffering if they so choose.
Sincerely,
Your kingdom companion, highway sojourner and fact-driven “fool” who still hopes positive change is possible.
B. Brubaker #1315055
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