ISLAND VOICES
Don't cast stones at the prison system
By Sgt. Jose M. Rodriguez
State correctional officer
The drug programs in prison don't work unless the individual wants it to work.
While I was an adult corrections officer III at Waiawa Correctional Facility, I was in KASHBOX and performing urinalysis. When all inmates are incarcerated, they must see the parole board, which determines their minimum sentence and which programs and classes they must complete before they are eligible for parole.
Ninety-five percent of the inmates in KASHBOX do not volunteer for the program but are basically forced into it because if they want to be paroled, they have to complete a level-three treatment program. If they don't complete the program, they can and will be denied parole.
I know firsthand that inmates do not want to go into any program inside or outside of prison. They feel that they don't have a problem. Now my question to you, columnist Robert Rees: Have you dealt with any of these individuals while they have been incarcerated and come with the attitude that they don't care about you or themselves?
When the warden, chief of security, nurse, social worker, counselors, teachers and volunteers go home, who's left inside the prison? The man or woman wearing the blue uniform — the ACO. We are inside with no gun, baton or self-defense weapon except our brains, communication skills and our fellow officers in blue. It's easy to cast stones in our direction, but remember, we are not the ones who make the rules, laws and procedures but the ones who have to enforce them to individuals who could not follow the laws in our free society.
What about the subject of the gangs that have infiltrated our prison system? Well, you can thank the lawmakers for sending our inmates to the private prisons (for profit). While they are incarcerated there, they get a new education in Mainland inmate prison rules. I have spoken to many inmates who returned to the Hawai'i prison system, and they tell me they wish they were back in the private prisons because they could do anything they want over there.
There are no easy answers to these problems, but one great solution is education of our children. I have so many new inmates who are children themselves with no education and no hope in their lives. Mr. Rees, like the old saying goes: walk in my shoes or any ACO's shoes, not a thousand miles but a few days in the prison, and then cast your stones.
