It Could Happen…
P.P.R.
In 1984 in the state of Tennessee, the country’s first privatized jail was born. Since its induction many have asked “Was it worth it?” When the economy began to tank, states turned to privatize jails for their overflow.
“Human rights groups were constantly up in arms over the treatment of the prisoners.”, said Officer Deardly. “Prison costs were beginning to skyrocket, and the state funds were dwindling. Privatized jails were a perfect solution.”
Rioting has become a thing of the past. These new privatize jails are equipped with state of the art surveillance and restraint technologies. Pipes equipped to seep nontoxic sleeping gas run throughout the main hallways. The Gas System is installed in all major rooms in the prison.
When a riot is being detected by the surveillance cameras, disabling nerve gas is pumped through the pipes into the room disabling all prisoners. The system is mostly automated, however guards still monitor the cameras.
Many human rights activists have petitioned for the closure of many of the country’s privatized jails. Many of the claims lodged in the past have been dismissed. Courts generally rule in favor of the privatized jails, citing laws that protect private companies. However, most of the complaints being lodged now are accusing the privatize jails of becoming forced labor camps.
At Browning jail, in Texas, prisoners work as farm and ranch hands. The general population in Browning jail seem to be well adjusted. They eat three healthy meals a day, that they had a hand in personally growing. Browning jail started off with one small carrot patch and a couple of sheep. They now plant and harvest enough food to sustain the entire prison from both the ranch and farm.
While at Browning we met inmate #963056, he was transferred here on a life sentence the day the doors opened at Browning. He knows all the history of this prison and all the ins and outs of daily life on the inside. After his shift at the slaughterhouse we got a chance to speak to him.
“I’m in for life.” Gregory Sazo Inmate #963056 stated with a smile on his face. “I tell you when they introduced the fact that we could have bacon for breakfast in the mornings. This place lit up! I mean you had inmates whoopin and a’hollerin. Spirits was real high. Then they found out that someone has to slaughter them hogs, and they wasn’t so happy. So many of us seen so much killin’ already, and to know… To know that hog had to die so you could eat some bacon. Well that really brought it home for some of the boys here. Yeah but, not me. And not some of the country folk. It was brought up to the warden, to stop the slaughter of innocence. In the end we ended up killing a lot less hogs, simply because the other inmates wont eat it. They like that with the cows too, and the sheep. So they started shearing the sheep and selling them off for profit.”
While many privatized jails are touting success stories like Browning, the less talked about prisons are the ones housing the criminally insane. These privatized jail systems treat their inmates like science experiments.
After trial, psychopaths are loaded up and put in a one room cell, with cameras watching their every move. There are multiple microphones as well, to capture every sound they make. Every angle of the room is covered. They lose their right to any kind of privacy when they committed heinous murder.
They are given no human contact, meals come in mechanical dumbwaiters to their cell. When the criminal messes up the food mechanism, the room is flooded with sleeping gas so a crew can come in. The criminal will be sedated a second time after they are secured in a straightjacket. Then the inmate is moved to a second room and left there while repairs are being done. The criminals will often awaken during this process, while in the new room. Alone and in a straight jacket, strapped to a gurney. The inmate will be gassed a second time and moved backed into the original cell after the work is completed.
On occasion a repair will take several days, in which the criminal is normally gassed unconscious and hooked up to an iv and urinary catheter. Every once in a while they will get a criminal who continually destroys the food dispenser and is allowed to starve to death.
They are studied like rats in a cage, twenty four hours a day everyday. Their every word read, their every drawing psychologically evaluated. They are sometimes rewarded for compliance and good behavior. Sometimes one will be given a room with a window that overlooks a grassy endless field. Another will get a television to control and watch. These too are just so they can be studied in a more relaxed environment. They want to know what makes these monsters to society tick.