Fellow abolitionists

With the consent of my friend Joe I share with you some of his
observations on life and death emanating from the indescribably harsh
environs of a supermax prison:

' ... My personal stratagems for meeting and dealing with the lunacy of
supermax, warehouse confinement specifically, and life in prison -
wrongfully so - in general, are not difficult to understand. The fact
that I continue on in this madness is, truly, an issue that I find
myself re-evaluating with a continuing frequency these days. The
question of whether or not there is a life after death is not one that
troubles my mind. Such questions, whether resolved to one's satisfaction
either yea or nay, are simply beyond our capacity to know for certain.
Such questions, like all the great metaphysical questions, come to rest
(as they probably should) on belief and/or faith. As a wiser one than I
once said, 'What is death? Either a transition or an end.' I personally
no longer fear coming to an end, such being the same as never having
begun. Nor do I fear transition - surely the confinement will not be as
cramped anywhere else as it is here! No, as to the metaphysical
questions that keep minds far superior to mine busy, I have long since
concluded that any truly honest thinker must admit to the uncertainty of
all metaphysical positions and - even moreso - of all creeds. The human
mind truly appears to lack the ability to establish anything
transcendental.

In all of this I am reminded of something I read several years ago, and
a statement attributed to Caligula. It was said that he was once passing
a column of captives when one of them begged to be put to death.
Caligula reportedly replied, 'You are alive then, as you are?' This was
in the context of the story of a Spartan boy who adamantly stated that
he would not be anyone's slave, and then proceeded to crack his skull
open on the first wall that presented itself unto him. Freedom is as
near as that for me. In that sense I truly do have a "door" that is
always open to me. Most who profess to be "free" in this world are in
fact slaves in one way or another - i.e. to sex, power, money, ambition,
to fear, hope, food, jobs, bills, circumstances, fellow human beings,
depression, etc., etc., even to life itself, so to speak. For when the
courage to die is absent, life itself can be a form of slavery.

It was said or written that the person who has learned how to die has
unlearned how to be a slave. Or to phrase it as Carl Jung once put it:
"A person who has not passed through the inferno of his passions has not
overcome them", i.e. remains a slave to them.

It is in this sense as well that I mean that I live in a radical state
of freedom. In a very real sense I must always be bluntly honest with
myself, given that there is a very real possibility that I may spend the
rest of my days in this life in this prison or another. In this context,
whether I am guilty or not guilty is truly not relevant - at least from
my personal standpoint. And this harkens back to our last couple of
letters, and the issue of "punishment", and its purpose, or lack
thereof. Pragmatically speaking,  a punishment or penalty that has no
end is fundamentally contradictory. Again, it matters not to me what
others may think on this score: I know for myself, within myself,, that
my further incarceration serves no valid purpose, and is useless -
except, that is - as a means of punishment for the sake of punishment.
My further incarceration is totally without any valid penological
justification and serves nothing more than the gratuitous infliction of
suffering [i.e. the constant assault on my dignity and humanity,
together with the constant psychological assaults]. Coupled with the
inherent injustice of my case - i.e. "evidence of innocence being
irrelevant" * [see explanatory footnote] - my attitude is that I exist
in a state of war. Essentially, punishment only functions properly if it
comes to an end.

More and more these days in this country ...... the language used with
reference to prisoners is language appropriate for material objects or
chattels, not human beings. Whether intentionally or not, I and every
other man here are treated as objects, and not as autonomous human
beings. The state can use whatever euphemistic language it desires, and
all the legal sophistries it chooses, but it is simply wrong ......

...... Old Socrates had the "Thirty Tyrants" standing over him and yet
they were unable to break his spirit. They can have my head, so to
speak, but they cannot have my spirit. When the day comes that the
powers that be convince themselves otherwise, I will take leave of this
life quicker than it will take them to do the paperwork. As it is with a
play, so it is with life, dear friend - it is not a matter of how long
the acting lasts, but how good it is. It is truly not important at what
point we stop in life. We always have the freedom to stop wherever we so
choose. We need only to make sure we round it off with a good ending.

I truly hesitate to speak along these lines for fear that friends will
think I'm losing it. But I can assure you that I'm not. I suppose, under
the standards set forth by the prison head shrinker, I could be labelled
suicidal! But nothing could be further from reality. One of the
strongest chains binding us is our love of life. No need to toss this
love out altogether, but we do need to lessen it somewhat so that - in
the event circumstances ever demand it - nothing may bar the way of our
being prepared to do at once what we must do eventually.

Please forgive me if this letter comes across as somewhat morbid. That
is hardly my intention. I believe it was the ancient philosopher
Epicurus who instructed that we should "rehearse death", which I've
always taken to mean that it is a good idea to familiarize oneself with
death. Something I was truly able to do on a daily basis for the years I
spent on the row. Then, as now, death has been - and truly continues to
be - the most powerful of meditations. And, therein, I discovered my
freedom: a true freedom that really places me beyond the reach of the
tyrants that I am constantly confronted with.

Yes, I full heartedly agree  with you " ... that harnessed to punishment
at all times there must be humanity". Justice must always be coupled
with mercy. Punishment must exhibit a life-affirming purpose ......'

* In the state where he is incarcerated, fresh evidence - even of
undoubted innocence - is precluded after an extremely brief post-trial
period

Brian Crowther
USA DP coordinator AIUK
--
Brian Crowther