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Troyan A-Theory-In-Tears Cassandra Troyan’s A Theory in Tears is the fifth of ten chapbooks in Kenning Editions’ Ordinance series. The series is available by subscription and individual titles can be purchased exclusively through Kenningeditions.com. This free PDF download is offered in good faith. Consider supporting the press, an independent, tax- exempt non-profit, with a donation or a purchase. A THEORY IN TEARS (ANNOTATIONS & CASES FOR FREEDOM & PROSTITUTION) CASSANDRA TROYAN Ordinance Series Chicago: Kenning Editions, 2016 “I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it. And I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it. One can be, indeed one must strive to become, tough and philosophical concerning destruction and death, for this is what most of mankind has been best at since we have heard of man. (But remember: most of mankind is not all of mankind.) But it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.” —James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time “FREEDOM IS THE CRIME WHICH CONTAINS ALL CRIMES. IT IS OUR ULTIMATE WEAPON.” —Graffiti from the walls of Paris during May of 1968 On June 6th, 2015 David Sweat and Richard Matt escaped from Clinton Correctional Facility, a maximum-security men’s prison in Dannemora, NY. At 22 Sweat was sentenced to life without parole for the first- degree murder of police officer Kevin Tarsia. Tarsia’s partner said the murder was, “an assassination, purely for the uniform that he wore.” “As her son grew, Ms. Sweat saw only wickedness. She knew he was too much when, at 9, he began throwing knives at her. He also threw a rocking chair at her.” “‘He could be a nice boy. But when the little bit of hellion in him came out, it came out full force.’” Matt was also serving a life sentence for second-degree murder without parole for killing his boss after kidnapping him for owed wages, then dismembering and dumping his body into the Niagara River. “His father, Robert Matt, was a repeat criminal, having been convicted multiple times on charges such as assault, burglary, issuing bad checks and criminal possession of stolen property. He is believed to be dead.” “When he was in his early teens, Mr. Matt was shuttled to a youth home. It did not suit him. So one day he stole a horse and rode away.” 4 What followed in the next three weeks was an unrelenting search to recover the escaped prisoners and discover who aided them in their plot. The manhunt took 1,600 members of law enforcement pulled from 11 different agencies around the country. When asked about the morale of the officers on the chase Major Charles Guess, head of the law enforcement team said, “you would not believe the energy here right now, everyone is very excited.” When asked about the expense of the pursuit Guess said they were not concerned and would spare nothing. The search cost the state of New York over $23 million just in overtime payment for officers alone. “Night had fallen at the Clinton Correctional Facility in far northern New York when the prison guards came for Patrick Alexander. They handcuffed him and took him into a broom closet for questioning. Then, Mr. Alexander said in an interview last week, the beatings began. As the three guards, who wore no name badges, punched him and slammed his head against the wall, he said they shouted questions: ‘Where are they going? What did you hear? How much are they paying you to keep your mouth shut?’ One of the guards put a plastic bag over his head, Mr. Alexander said, and threatened to waterboard him.” “‘[He] takes a deep breath and shoots the first round. The first round hits its target,’ Guess said, but one bullet wasn’t enough to bring Sweat down. ‘Sergeant Cook quickly takes a second aim shot. Hits him again in the back and the upper torso, to which Sweat dropped immediately to the ground,’ Guess continued.” “For nine days, Geneva Perez has been trying to reach her husband in prison. And for nine days, she has been told she cannot talk to him. Prison officials have assured her that everything is fine. But she does not believe them because, in prison, it almost never is…Communication with the outside world has ceased. No visitors or phone calls are permitted. Mail delivery has been inconsistent.” Richard Matt was killed by border patrol agents when he refused to drop his weapon on June 26th in Malone, NY. David Sweat was shot but captured alive or barely alive. The images of Sweat after his capture show him bleeding, sitting on the ground handcuffed with an oxygen mask strapped to his face. This image was everywhere—displaying a moment similar to a hunter posing with his fresh kill—a deer with its tongue lagging sideways out of its mouth. 5 “In the best of times, Ms. Perez’s life is isolated. She works two jobs and the five-hour bus trip to Clinton, near the Canadian border, eats up much of her free time. Friends wonder why she has to go every weekend. And when people hear her husband was convicted of murder, it scares them. Ms. Perez has long leaned on the wives of the Clinton inmates. And it is to them that she has once again turned over the last week. ‘We all go through the same struggles’ she said…Ms. Perez, 25, says most people do not have any understanding of what it is like being a prison wife.” “Before the lockdown occurred, she would usually leave her home on Staten Island by 6 p.m. on Saturdays. She and her three children first ride a public bus about an hour to the Staten Island Ferry. They take the ferry to Lower Manhattan, then catch the subway to 161st Street, then walk to the corner where a chartered bus is parked. The bus leaves at 10 p.m., but she tries to be there at least a half-hour early so they can get good seats for sleeping. This time of year, when the roads are clear, they typically arrive at the prison by dawn. They use public bathrooms in the prison’s reception building to wash themselves and put on clean clothes. Visiting hours start at 9 a.m., but if the security line is long, they do not get in until 10. They usually get home around 2 a.m. on Monday. Ms. Perez is up by 5:30 a.m. for her job as a home health aide. She then puts in eight hours as a cashier at a Pathmark. When she gets home, she is exhausted.” 6 “‘I did take a time to savor that moment knowing that the guy who made the apprehension was safe,’” Guess said. “‘That was a huge relief knowing we had two of them now out of the public, so that was a good ride for me, and then walking in and of course seeing Sergeant Cook’s face and shaking his hand and congratulating him, frankly.’” “‘I can’t say what I’d do; I didn’t have the time Sweat has,’ said Mr. Alexander, who has spent 11 years in prison and will be eligible for parole in 2023. ‘So no, I don’t resent them. Maybe I should, but I don’t.’” 7 8 One evening in June I’m in a taxi on my way to work when a show on the radio starts talking about the case. The discussion is mostly about Sweat and Matt’s female accomplice, Joyce E. Mitchell, a supervisor in the prison tailor shop who smuggled in tools used in their escape and was supposed to meet them outside the prison walls to drive them to Mexico. Yet the most prominent part of the controversy circulating around her involvement was how she was wooed by two murderers, how “she thought it was love,” and the presumed sexual relationship she had with Matt. What kind of sex. When did it happen. Where did it happen. How often. The radio hosts were rating her attractiveness, which they described as a two on the outside, but a “prison ten.” They were trying to decide who was more desperate, the criminals or Mitchell. Mitchell said “I was caught up in the fantasy. I enjoyed the attention, the feeling both of them gave me the thought of different life. It was just an infatuation.” “‘Who the hell would fall in love with a prisoner?’ said one of Ms. Mitchell’s cousins by marriage, who asked that his name not be used for privacy’s sake. ‘That doesn’t seem like Tillie.’” “Correction experts say it’s not uncommon for inmates to ‘groom’ prison staff’ in the hopes of getting special treatment or contraband, but Matt and Sweat had their eye on a much bigger prize: freedom.” * * * * * There is a psychological disorder for this supposed attraction— hybristophilia: a sexual paraphilia where an individual is aroused by the threat of danger from a sexual partner who is “known to having committed an outrage or crime, such as rape, murder, or armed robbery.” Referred to as “Bonnie and Clyde Syndrome,” it is a phenomenon far more common in women than in men, especially women who have experienced physical or emotional abuse.
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