Joseph Sanchez
Nonfiction
THE OTHER F-WORD
Joseph Sanchez
As a "felon, inmate, prisoner or offender", I find myself in a conundrum in the label debate. All the words can fit, but none define me. And that, I believe, is the problem with the words, they are to broad and lead to speculation. In prison there are different classes of felons, inmates, prisoners and offenders. In New York we are. called offenders. Most of us in prison reject this word because it sounds too close to the lowest class class--child abusers and rapists. As the saying goes "the only offenders I know are sex offenders." An "inmate" is regarded as an informant or uncle Tom -- which is the next lower class. Which only leaves felon or prisoner.
Felon sounds permanent, maybe due to conditioning, it is something that will never wash away. With every crimme the media, the politicians, and the public go to blame one failure or an other. A majority of these "failures" are someone failing to predict the occurrence of a crime based from the perpetrator's criminal history. It goes as far as finding blame for failing to use the perpetrator's free speech (i.e., Social Media Postings) to incarcerate them. Until we stop placing blame on decision makers for not using one's criminal history, we will never be able to transcend the label of being a felon. Until then call me a prisoner and when I am released an ex-prisoner.
"THE OTHER F-WORD"
The Marshall Project. Org, by Bill Keller, April 27, 2016.