Another Slice of Life Inside

March 25, 2016

One former northern Michigan resident ended up at Pugsley while serving a five-to-ten-year sentence after a felony conviction.

The ex-con, who talked in the condition of anonymity, recalls his time spent in prison as an extraordinary waste of taxpayer dollars noting recidivism rates that exceed 40 percent within three years.

He spent enough of that time inside the razor-wire-covered fences of Pugsley to develop an opinion about the place.

LOTS OF BOOZE

He said the state’s prisons are awash in alcohol.

"Alcohol is produced in every single prison facility in the state, probably in the country," he said. "It’s a job. It’s a business, for a lot of these guys. It’s rampant."

The former inmate said he was too afraid to touch the low-grade hooch; he said prisoners would smuggle fruit from the cafeteria and ferment it in a box in their cell into a clear, high-proof alcohol.

Despite the constant alcohol abuse that surrounded him, he didn’t consider prison in general or Pugsley in particular to be a dangerous place. His main objection was that life was too meaningless and easy.

He believes no rehabilitation or education takes place. People are housed to sit around and watch television all day.

He said he can understand people who opt for prison over homelessness.

"Someone who is homeless would largely benefit from going to prison," he said. "It’s just too easy; there’s no breaking rocks in the hot sun. That’s all over."

A C.O. CRITIC

The former prisoner said a decade ago he didn’t see a lot of gang activity, he witnessed little violence (he saw just one fight, one inmate slapping another), and he never really felt threatened.

"What you would see is mostly a bunch of guys laying around in a bunk or watching TV or eating, going to a meal," he said.

He said prison officials want inmates to have televisions so they require less supervision.

"They will do lots of other things to punish you, but taking that TV will not be one of them," he said.

The former inmate-turned-corrections critic said he believes corrections is designed to maintain itself for the sake of the people employed by the prisons. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the time he spent in prison didn’t foster kind thoughts about prison guards.

"These corrections officers have no training," he said. "They cannot do anything else. They are by-and-large uneducated and they’ve taken a job that pays them a whole lot of money to sit around and read newspapers. They love it. They will fight for it."