1HI Sheer hopelessness, llosignalinn You lead il in Ihe faces. Before the fad. hefore CATHOLIC WORKER Hie attempt lo do somcluhtg, all of modem life, at its boiling, tossing center, seems ori;an or tiif. catholic worker imovi.imi.nt hopeless. Acceded, admitted lo, Hie bent TETEn MAUniN. Founder bends, cop-otd, rclrcal. jogging heallh spas, kids' games for adults, homeinaking. DOROTHY DAY, Editor and Publisher money making . . . Hesislance is hopeless, DANIEl MAUK, PEGGY SCHERER, Managing Editors a wasle. 'They' are loo big. omnivorous, powerful. Our side has no one. no motley, Vol. Xl.iv. No. ? no energy, oleolorn, etcetera. The etceteras September, 1978 would fill a Kelly girl's (sic) wasle haskol with a macho sluller. Marion Prison We don't want lobe helpless. We don'l •• waul to be inarticulate. We don't ward lo be ell the slreef. We tfon'1 wnnf lo sit alone Hell In a Very Small .Space in a box, be shunted around in cuffs. We don'l want lo be losers. We don"! ward to ny DANIEL BEMUGAN. S.J.' selves, we awl the havoc we wreak We, and (he needful victims of--we. die. even a tittle. We want, maybe. In talk Wtffinn nhiwH prisoners is n lilllo like A like fear and trembling arises at (he about the poor, or prisoners, or refugees, nrilitig about the dead: the mass dead, spectacle or political prisoners. To Ihc out or Hie ghotloizod lo write about litem, or lite unknown mid unknowable, limn* killpcl commiserate, or (on occasion) leaflet al a in disasters like Managua or Nagasaki or side worlds, prison is somewhat like a can prison, or-proles! the dentil penally. To go Lebanon No one cares, no one knows; who ccr ward. Those who walk in will never far enough in, as the song has it, lo be Mi'- dead wore, what difference limy made walk out; so the myth goes. Prisoners are portents, sources of.awe (revealers or our able lo say we were there ... II is a lillle Ik •••"I or nlivo. why Ihey perished, whol our like the terrified fear or the seriously ill, debl is |n Ihctit. Prisoners are the'widend' "I'vedied everything." And often you find nf today's honor films flow budget) and the they've tried everything but (he one essen Hliir novels of flic Ifllh rotifnry. They in Hal thing. Christians have tried everything spire honor and dread nnd revulsion, A bul Christianity. diuVrenl piand, di HeronI beings, hardly hn man Who wants lo know hardly humans? The Undead Come Alive For jnsl such reasons thai no one wants Whal does one do with knowledge ot the In know. Hint most people fear lo know. fads, (he atrocious, unbearable treatment (foil no one listens or ponders--for such or people, prisoners? the hind or knowl masons, il is entirely crucial lo keep writ edge that might heighten empathy, send ing, kicp talking about prisoners, What no blood racing in compassion? and vel does dim- wants lo know may he exactly what something quite different leaves one with pvrrynne needs lo know* What everyone is folded hands? afraid In know may be what will snatch You unfold your hands. lis from damnation. I call it the Cod Liver And then (here is the question or prayer, nil principle, out of my boyhood; the least which consists torthe most pari in insisting savory taste in (he world saves lives, saves that God do for Us what we are unwilling reason. Or. I think of a sensible applica to do for one anolher. Resolve: Let's do tion of (hn old 'analogy of faith' principle for one anolher what we would have God wo learned in theology. A Inllh in one do for all. This is known as godlike activity. realm sheds needed light on all truth. In such ways, the undead (ourselves) Everything real touches everything real. come alive. Anolher reason why people shy away Prisons have a radically different rela frotu knowing about prisoners: what a Dan Enrigan r.pr-nV.mq at Si Lonir. Univo,- tionship than oilier public structures. In n drag, Ihey sigh. The fads are such a btir- r.ily lorum on Ffiimon RigMs In a Ntic/Vcu given culture. In a morally underdeveloped den. piling np. lying nnassiinilaled and World, forum was co-sponsored by National land such as ours, one still hears talk or CommiltoQ in Stipatl the Marlon Biofhors Inerl (here in (he mind. What are we (o do nnd Ihn Social Jusffc... Comwirr.inn n/ die the reform or universities or (he renewal with (he daily need of horrors? We can Missouri Province at f/V- lor.uil.i or political forms, or even the rebirth or entry il about like a sack hill of snakes. (he churches. These are not Inherently condition?). We resist the trulh Ihey have lost causes, though Ihe limes conspire lo Rut where shall we lay it down, or ex (o offer. This is why, even among peace change il Tor something lighlsoine. a cash make (hem so. But lire reform of prisons! people loo, (here is such fudging on the One would have lo be fond as Macawher product, a prestige ilem? Let's just take question of serious civil disobedience. At onr Jesus weightless, please. or mad as Lear lo propose such an oxy meetings cvalualing the June actions al moron, in America, in 78, An inherently Ilii-: fremhling. awe, fixation, fear, ft (lie IJ.N.. discussion on (he conduct, elhos, gathers around (he fain of (he gienf mass |Ios( cause, which mad limes invest with ot fhose Inking pari, was minimal. What an altogether spurious, mad eyed legifi nr prisoners in America, if. disrupts onr counted was, in a curiously snnalized ob stereotypes about ourselves, free, brave macy. it Is a legitimacy lent by fear" fo scenity, media 'exposure.' The? leadership, the absurd; fortunes are built on if, bad while, benign, just. .. Then (he prisoners at least (he voluble part of It. seemed (o loom tip. (he largest cohcenfrnfion of pris dread above all, the essential Invisibility jobs multiply like maggots, bureaucrat, oners in western history, some quarter of ot prison, the wipe out. Arrest, well maybe. academics, chaplains clone like crazy. a million of them-largely non while, male Mill disappearance, even for a few days? Everyone wauls a cut, everyone has some I""". Ourselves? Ourselves and not our- thing to offer-(he cosmetic job on a dead Hell no, we won't go. horse. for il leant smite piisnivts, Hie slltin Mul in Ihe mallei of |he Mai inn Illinois 'I WOtlld like to have yon think nf htntn linn lues a kind nf un picquancy. They IVhavini- Modification Outer. Prisoners washing, nol in terms of polities. i-IIdes. aie ntuntileitis of a system which manages who remain unbroken by Ihe bonebreakers, and tnntals, but in terms of the drlihciate al rule and Hie same limp I" h" nnli bibli sometimes perform marvels of making do changing nf human behavior and attitudes '•al. nnli historical, nnli human, morally One of Hie marvels is Ihe research and by a group nf men who have relatively ruthai'.enus. socially unworkable, ruinously writing done, somehow, by a group of in complete control over the environment in expensive, and mdaphvsicalh repugnant. males, subject lo duress and snooping al which Ihe captive populace lives. A cancer spot nu Hie universal karma. Is Ihe Mai inn Center. Whal follows thaws It would be a fatally simple enor In there a consolation In being pitched Into a heavily oil Iheir work. consign Dr. Schein ami his likes l<> the madhouse? Old of Hie woisl may come the In IftfiZ. n watershed meeting was held closed cabinet of Dr. Cagliari lie i^. it" best Meantime like lite heio of "King of inWashington, between prison officials and moral mutation. Indeed Ihe treason of the Hear Is.' the prisoners fiance, mime, gri social scientists. A Dr. Rdgnr Reltein ui intellectual is a crime at least as old as mace, mimic the insanity of society al MIT lltere presented certain ideas on Hip lite groves of academe, whose values have lot ge. subject, 'Man Agninsl Man (sic): Drain shellercd. ever the centuries, every type The ntosl neglected lexis of Ihc New washing.' The ideas were seized nil by from the impassioned socrnlie lo Hie nil 'I'estaiueitl in our lifetime, refer illrcctly lo penologists and practitioners with consid picking aberrant sophist, making the wmsl Hie giealesl crimes of our lifetime: war. erable fervor, and' laid, in fact, Hie ideo argument appear the belter. capital punishment, abortion 'these are logical ami practical basis for Ihe Marion What is new in Ihe situation is Ibe wide llagianl assaults on Hie God of Life the Center. Said Sehfjli: largesse of Ihe federal cornucopia. Hie mil command which is n self-revelation of In nnler (o produce marked changes of pruning of whose goodies on campus re God. "I'hou shall nol kill ' 'Hie implien- altitude and/or behavior, it is necessary In search (especially in Ihc social and pttte linns of violating II"1 ooiiiniand. in our weaken, undermine, nr remove the sup sciences) Ihe Vietnam decade illustrated shucking oil our godlike aura, are appal ports nf Ihe old altitudes. Because mosl of The truism was revealoiMo cynic and inttn ling The second mosl neglected lexis of these supports are mp lace to fare confir cent alike no campus, however private 01 Ibe New Testament today, refer lo Ihe mation of present bcnnvlnr and attitudes, prestigious, can exist without government second giealesl of crimes: those commit which are provided by those with whom benefits. And, on Ihe other hand, no war ted against people whose fate, for one close emotional lies cxisl, It Is often neces could be waged, no public opinion be icason or another, falls shot I of actual sary lo break llmse emotional ties. This turned around, no prison technique be inut del 111 general, Ihe condemning of can he done either by removing Ihc Indi introduced or tested, without Ibe roHalw \:v.\ numbers In servilude. victimhood. ex vidual physically and preventing any mm ration of Ihe academics. From 'value free.' ploilalinn And among llmse so reduced, muuiealion with those whom he cares Ihe campuses had turned uecrophilic. paia niaulnl. made spm I of. reduced In /ems, about, or by proving to hint that those silie ue imt-:l surely eoutil Ihe prisoners Their whom he respects are nol worthy of it. This is Ihe stringed and purring back fair cries out lo heaven for vengeance II and. indeed, should be actively mistrusted. ground music thai played lo Schein and h a entineqiieitee of Ihe hardening of heart, Schein had arrived for Hie mooting pre liis well bred savageries. And for collider brutalizing of conscience, which Ihe Bible pared to olfer more than theory, lie fairly point, a fervent and grateful response speaks o| as a eontmoti alllidion of Ihe bristled with practicalities, of which I That a gentleman's agieemenl was being la;:| limes quote only a few: reached, thai great tilings would follow, Now there remain these three - faith. Physical removal of prisoners lo areas no one could be allowed lo doubt. The Pi hope, and professionalism bid Hie great rector of Federal Prisons offered an even el of these is professionalism. sufficiently isolated lo effectively break or handed invitation lo those present to gel seriously weaken close emotional lies. I eotilit count on Hie fingers of my left the work underway: - .Segregation of all natural leaders. hand the number of Jesuits I know who .. .we have a tremendous opportunityhere give a hang nboo! prisoners. We are pro - Spying on prisoners, reporting back pri to carry on some of the experimenting to fessionalized out nf our skulls. Young peo vate material. which the various panelists have alluded. ple who enter the Order without a clue to —Exploitation of opportunists and inform We can manipulate our environment and Hip real world, are hacked into academe ers. culture. We can perhaps undertake some •.}". surely as. say. ghetto kids are tracked —Convincing prisoners Ihey can trust no nf the techniques Dr. Schein discussed ... into Allien. Thus on our side, docs class one. Do things on your own. Undertake n little ism replace Christianity. - Systematic willioldlng of mail. experiment with what you can do with lh< Collusion —Building a group conviction among pris Muslims. Do It as individuals. Do fl I spoke al a Stale campus in Illinois on oners Hint Ihey have been abandoned by groups, nnd let us know the results the horrors being even then perpetrated at or are totally .isolated from their social Thus Ihe principle was blessed: cant| Ihe Marion Federal Prison In Hint stale. order. go-getters with Ibe smarts, do whal has lo I was immediately taken on by a hulling Using techniques of character invalida be done. They arc like Ihc Iseatioi with bureaucrat of the university. (1 had sug tion; i.e., humiliation, rcvilemenl, shout briefcase of credentials; Ihey like posted that the evidence showed a strongly- ing. lo induce feelings of fear, guill, ami betrayal clean and direct, they would forged collusion between Ihe academics suggestibility; coupled with sleeplessness, coins from a dead man's eyes. And and prison officials, in Ihc creation of ever an exacting prison regimen and periodic others who claim some connection with n more sophisticated punishment centers.) hiterrognllonnl interviews. humane tradition, who like to call on Hie lie declared with some heal, and in Ibe shades of Socrates or Luther or Aquinas teeth of the evidence, that such things were And so on and so on. Rill Ihe above will convey something of the flavor. they don't know what goes on in the labs rntHiinknhlo al Orbana. I was reminded of or board rooms, or don't want lo know. Are we lo conclude that Dr. Schein Is an old horse we bad for years on the farm, II comes lo Hie same thing There is a Mind In Ihe left eye. We used to concoct without human feeling? Perhaps rather, that he is in stern control. His psyche is corrupting Innocence as there Is a bluster tricks, slrab'gems. surprise assaults on ing upfront corruption. Ihe pnor animal, all in silence, all on Ihe untrammelled, he is ready tor Ihe job lo blind side. He never, knew, until il was loo be done. And he urges a like discipline on In such wise, by silence and collusion n« well as Judas' bargaining, the fate of Ihe l.-le Which is lo sav. he never knew. his hearers: denting pii«:onets al Marion is sellled cassetted and cursed, petniaueitlly kept oneis have done Iheir homework on piison ami «:i-.-d»-d In. among nlhcr places, Ihe oil balance, marinated in numerous sweet religion as well as piison economies, ptis academic dels and cluslcts of Urbana and sour juices, persuaded thai, conformity on miseducalion, prison discipline. More; campus There, as clseitheie. il is as rare is all, drugged if need be, Iherapied mil of Ihey have had In create forms nf faith In encounter a right minded, passionate, his skull, victimized by every free floating that would help Ihem to nurture the roots family member, as il is In meet his her ploy of Ihe psycho trade- there dwells Ihe of resistance, speak for Ihe soul, funciinn connliipail among say. the Jesuits.Wo are, prisoner who has made il, who is in pro in strikingly traditional ways; fnsling. imn in one al Ihc baser coinages, 'privatized.' cess of making it, who horrors! may for a violent reprise, care for one anolher, disci When I was In Panbury prison. I hail lime resist making il. pline, meditalinn. They have thus created occasion lo ask a prison dnclnr a queslinn. We must linger over litis obscure figure, whole cloth, a community deserving of Ibe file bail been a student in a college theol his existence, his secret thought, his datk name prison religion bos sold mil: resist ogy course I taught al Le Moyne. A good vision of life. These arc of moment to all. ing, faithful iutprnvisitig. tactically naive, man. but weak, in a bail spot.) Ilow long, And one need nol cheaply or carelessly willy. in his opinion, could a prisoner bear with draw lines linking his fale and ours. The And Ihey have done all Ibis, it must be solitary confinement, without psychic linkage Is..(here, for those with eyes lo remembered, in circumstances designed lo hum? lie put Ihe order limit al one week. sec: indeed it has been boldly and expli daunt all but Ibe hardiest spirits. "Afler thai, one can expect disorientation, citly drawn by prison authorities: "The We are lo imagine a cell, six feel by nine, glowing intense as the isolation goes on." purpose of the Marion cnnltol unit is lo in which one is locked for an unspecified Vet in Danbuty. a relatively benign box, conlrot revolutionary attitudes in the pris number of days, weeks, months, for twenty siretches in solitary often went for .10 days on system and in Ihe society at large." three and one half hours each day, on tut or mote. (Ralph Aran, former warden of Marion. specified charges. The Marion Pen. however, is nol fooling Kmphasis mine.) mound There is :\ concentrated effort to There you sif. Ami Ihere yob stand, and piHt mailers lo Ihe limit: the limit of tinge in Secret Ihere you pace. And Ihere you bend over and in Handel's wonderful phrase, 'leach enrhuance. the limit of the law, Ihe limit Unique! Slid, we are told that, al Mar of ethics And over. I! is not merely that ion even, a few prisoners hold mil. They Ihe ants Iheir ARC's.' In principle las Ihe ptoposals of Schein and his crew of are jealous of their souls. They guard Iheir apart from practice) no one can lay a man eaters have been put into practice, thoughts, musing Iheir rage in secret. And hand on you: no drugs, no screaming, buill In. quite coldly and lilerallv. One can let us not slop Ihere; that dark rage is not wlteamiiig, therapy sessions, no chaplains' expect, afler all. that a free hand will be what makes litem dangerous; indeed, it is soft soap, no yard, no sky. A dnuble door, a shod nf sieel, a sound proofed existence, nlTi-ied when the silk suited, brief cased arguable Hint haired is a serviceable tnol also people proofed, lime proofed, motion scalpers descend on the defenseless. A of captivity. No. these holdouts eheiish wink, a covert nod, a bargain struck. Who Iheir anger, separate II with a jeweler's proofed. has nol seen il? Who. afler all, need know, precision from the detritus of racism and Worth pausing over; considerable genius if Ibis or that rule Is bent. Ibis or that new frenzy. Justice is Iheir passion. They are has been expended hero. Your body will idea Itied out7And if something leaks, who pure anger, cleanly fueled; like a blow bear no marks of brutality, sadism, lech cares' And who says (Ibis is Ihc clincher) lurch laced with oxygen,they burn straight nlqiie. Physical lot lure, Hs principle and who says Ihe cat ing must begin with Ihnsp up. They are in service. And Ibis makes insliiutienls nnd skills, is for export; your who are assaulted, bewildered, thrown of! litem dangerous as a laser in skilled hands. Internal colon Is unmarked. Apait fimn balance by a brand of new and fractious They cut through adamant, theycutthrough calling attention lo what must remain a prisoners, politically reborn, hip, beyond time and Hie walls of hell itself. They cut discreet enterprise, such stigmata would impressing with a slick or winning over through lies and rhetoric and false prom make the prisoner a less pure subject of with carrots? ises and threats and black looks and de soul bending. For the Marion Center is. And Marion, be it noted, is nol simply a scending goons' clubs. They cut through after all, a laboratory. It may also be a prison where the ante is up, or Hie prison the opaque culture, Ihe omni-resistant confessional, a gulag, a Devil's Island up heal turned higher. Mnrionrrnnnot really curtain Hiat Items them in — a spiritual lo dale. Bui it is first and foremost a lab be compared on a yardstick of high seen slavery. oratory of social and soul change; it must rily. legitimate violence, with conditions at approach the decontaminated purity of Atlanta or Lewlsburg. What all these pens At this point the battle is joined. Skinner's famous Cambridge cellar. have in common Is. in oilier words, for less One must be careful in the name of the Congratulations. You are now a candi significant limit what Marion alone prac heroic resislers of Marion, not lo mystify date, honored In principle, dishonored in tices and pushes. Ihe issue. Humans created Marion, hu practice (a truly Pauline irony) -a candi In common, arguably, in Ihe high volt mans must render it less lethal, or belter date for the twice-horn human. Within age federal system are lite following: mur slill, must dismantle it. A mitigation of its such a vocation, it is understandable that ders, hrulalizalion, drug pushing, destruc horrors, of injustice and the degradation of Ihe choices are not large. You may hasten tion of mail, intimidation and harassment souls, must be sought by legal and illegal the process, or abort it by suicide, as many of visitors and families, racism designed means. Humans oppose humans, in a con do. A regrettable outcome, cheating on In fragment Ihe prisnuers. abuse nf reli test to Ihe death; seizing on public apathy, Ihe slate, whose outreach cannot prevent gious belief and practice, misuse of ther certain minds are determined to make of this final evasion. Or you may sabotage apy techniques, moionic labor assign the defenseless Ihe victims, and of victims Ihe process by an altogether tvtlful stub- menK slave wages and practice of solitary (if required) corpses, fids must be re hornoss. Some have even memorized por confinement. slsled, the guilty brought to Ihe bar. lions of the Rlble or Hie Rill of flights as 11ien we come lo Marion. Literally and On the oilier hand, it seems to me ex a bright bulwark; Ihey incant the words symbolically In the end of Ihe line, the Be traordinarily significant that the prisoners night and day as though some secret vir havior Modification system. This is Ihe have grasped something deeper: the spir tue exuded from Ihem, to make one un darling of Hip federal workhouses. Ihe 'iron itual conflict that underlies their plight. touchable by calipers and saw. maiden' nf that chorus of furies whose Humans indeed created Marion bttl Marion And finally, and in large pari, others chanf js a|| nf n nrw riealion. There. is out of control, a technique gone berserk. submit; and thus rejoin America, restored •sii nir'lifl jacketed, allcrnalcly cherished. To insist on this, lo document it. Ihe pris in limb, chastened in soul.