By Kathy Kelly

April 28, 2004

Phil Berrigan, the renowned peace activist who died in December 2002, always urged people to talk back to the TV screen while the news was being spun by politicians and commentators. Phil would have approved of women who watch CNN early morning news here at the Pekin Federal Prison Camp. A few mornings ago, Soledad O’Brien interviewed John McCain about his recommendations regarding US troops presence in Iraq. McCain lamented the shortage of funding to pay for the plans he envisioned and then recommended that congress make courageous choices to cut back spending. Immediately, women prisoners pointed to themselves and shouted to McCain, “We’ll help you save money. Send us home!”

Each of the women are “first time offenders” with mandatory minimum sentences of five or more years for non-violent drug related crimes. With no possibility of parole and very few means of earning good time, the only way for them to achieve some kind of sentence reduction is to be “a snitch.”

It’s hard to think of a more difficult setting in which to try and organize legislative activism. Disappointment and feelings of isolation have been reinforced by the letdowns that come with “chain gang rumors” which turn out to be completely false. Yet an extremely capable and efficient team of women prisoners here has repeatedly managed to generate many hundreds of letters to relatives and friends, written by prisoners, in support of various prison reform bills that have actually been introduced into the US Congress.

Two weeks ago, Connie and Ruth, two “long termers” who’ve been who’ve been part of a core group of organizers here, came into the Nebraska unit with a manila packet carrying the text of House Resolution 4036. This resolution, introduced by Danny Davis, D- IL, on March 25, 2004, proposes to revive the system of parole for federal inmates. Before the weekend was over, the “team” had put in place a plan to copy and distribute 600 sample letters which prisoners could send to their family members and friends, urging support for the bill.

After the 600 letters were sent, a counselor whom the women trust dampened their hopes considerably. “If this bill were ever to pass, you can be sure the BOP (Bureau of Prisons) would testify before Congress that it would be impossible to make the bill retroactive,” said Mr. Sailer. “They’ll argue that there’s no way to arrange release and probation for all of the prisoners that would be affected.”

The following morning, undaunted, Ruth’s team was drafting an additional sentence, urging that a bill be passed which would revive parole for prisoners currently incarcerated. The women had already spotted a disclaimer in Danny Davis’s proposed bill which would exclude prisoners who are “ineligible for such release under any other provision of law.”

“We’ll write to Danny Davis this afternoon,” said Ruth. “And we’ll get advice from campaigners on the outside, like FAMM (Families Against Mandatory Minimums).”

“All God’s children gotta sing in the choir; some sing low some sing higher.”

Not all of the prisoners here respond energetically to Ruth’s organizing and outreach. Some feel that it’s all up to God and that God has sent them here for a reason. If God wants them out, they’ll be out. Others can’t believe the system could ever be changed in their favor.

A few recalled a week in June, 2001, when prisoners spent seven days holding vigils, sunrise prayer services, laps around the track, and a whole day of fasting in observance of prisoner awareness week. Over half the women in the camp participated in the vigils and the fast.

Shortly thereafter newspapers ran a spate of articles about early releases of state prisoners in various parts of the US. The US Federal government has, at times, fined state penitentiaries because they failed to alleviate overcrowded conditions, but the federal government has yet to address its own severe problems of overcrowding. Next door to this camp is a medium high security men’s prison built to accommodate 800 prisoners. There are currently 1400 men incarcerated there. By reviving systems of parole, or eliminating the severe mandatory minimums imposed on judges through sentencing guidelines, the US government could reduce the numbers of people incarcerated to give prisoners some hope of a second chance. Ruth acknowledges that the week of fasting and prayer didn’t result in benefits for the prisoners at Pekin. “Still, I’m glad we did it and I’m glad the state prisoners, some of them, were able to go home,” she said. “But I know some prisoners here were just so disappointed and let down. It’ll be hard to get them to come out again.”

Tomorrow Ruth will have a chance to talk to the TV in person when a Kansas City television station comes to interview her. This evening, sitting together on a bench, several women brainstormed the most important points they hoped Ruth could assert. “Ask why non-violent offenders get more time in prison than murderers, rapists, terrorists, and child molesters?” said one woman. “I felt bad for that lady who murdered all three of her kids, - she must be mentally ill, - but how come she got eight years and I got fifteen for a first time nonviolent drug related crime?”

“I was gonna keep track of people who got less time than me,” joked another woman, sentenced to 24 years, “but I couldn’t find a file big enough.” She’s also a first time offender with a drug related crime.

“And be sure to mention that when wealthy and famous people are convicted of drug abuse, they get sent to rehab, - but poor people who aren’t well connected go to straight to jail,” said a woman who has spent eight years here and has six more to go. “Mention Rush Limbaugh and Jeb Bush’s daughter.”

Needless to say, president Bush’s assurance, in his State of the Union message, that this is the land of the second chance, evoked plenty of “talk back.”

I’ve enjoyed watching women be funny and brash, “talking back” to Authorities that dominate their daily lives and futures. Humor helps maintain greatly needed esprit d’ corp. But most women I’ve met say they still steal away, some as often as once a day, to pray and weep in private.

Over time I hope to share with them Phil Berrigan’s last written words in which he recommended worthwhile subjects of prayer, among them, “that the crime of 57 years of nuclearism, and its consequent wasting of our lives, and planet be revealed” and that Americans grasp that war is our #1 business: that we are a violent, killer people and that we know virtually nothing of the nonviolence of Jesus and the Gospels.

The land of the “second chance” has good reason to pray that we will discontinue the war we’ve waged against Mother Earth, and repent for the war we’ve waged against poor people, especially those locked up in prisons and jails across the US, and Phil would have urged all of us to pray for a second chance, but first to listen very carefully to imprisoned prophets.