Political Prisoner

[Martin Hash]

I listened to a very concerning “Frontline” podcast where some States in the South were starting up chain gangs again, making money from prisoners, and because of the financial incentive, the States were keeping prisoners longer and returning them to prison easier and faster. Now, one of my favorite movies of all time was Cool Hand Luke. When I think chain gang, I'm thinking Paul Newman before salad dressing. I know that most of the people working on a chain gang aren't as handsome as Paul, and building roads by hand with pick axes isn't handsome-man work, but I've also heard they make license plates too. I've noticed my State, Washington, makes me buy license plates more often, and now I'm suspecting there's an ulterior financial motive based on prison inmate populations? This suspicion was reinforced just yesterday.

It's election season and all the crap is coming in the mailbox. I don't know of anyone who actually looks at this high-priced stuff, nobody in my family cares; it's a race to the trashcan by who can throw it away first. For example, we've gotten several glossy mailers promoting or condemning Proposition 1531, the Washington State Carbon Tax bill; I was almost tempted to read one once but my aversion to being propagandized was too strong. I'll read the first sentence in the Voter's pamphlet and decide then.

I-1631 Flyer.jpg

Among all the glitzy flyers was a hand-lettered envelope, in pencil. The return address caught my attention because it was from a prisoner, his inmate number right there in the upper-left corner, and a hand-stamp on the back saying the letter is from a correctional institution. I've seen these before; my son, Haven, before he met his wife in Peru, was dating a girl who sent him letters from prison, except she used colored pencils to address them, and drew rainbows on the front. I couldn't wait to get into my office to open my letter; was I about to get a date?

Jail Stamp.jpg

Turns out someone in the Washington prison system has gotten into political demagoguery. Inside was a long handwritten letter extolling Proposition 1531. Inmate #79123 also has a lot to say about the size of the U.S. House of Representatives. He's says he's been to Washington D.C. four times, and the size of the House should be increased at least three-fold, and they could eminent domain enough land to build a 40-story office building to easily put them in. If the prisoner who wrote this was as informed as this letter made him appear, and he wasn't just copying a prison-provided form, then I'm going to take his advice. If you're not going to take political advice from a prisoner, who are you going to listen to?

Letter.jpg