• McKenzieDaul

    I, too think it is an interesting question to ask regarding prison tours. As part of a course that I took with Nancy, called Dismantling Racism, we toured the Women’s Prison in Chowchilla, California. From the time I received the news that we would be touring this facility I questioned whether or not I wanted to participate in this. It seemed as though we would be going into a space, where we would be viewing human beings like animals in a zoo. Going further, how would I learn what prison is like or what it is about when I could simply walk out behind those walls an hour after entering? In the end, I attended the tour and found it interesting how the prison was presented. It was as if we were trying to obtain a job within the system, as the CO constantly spoke about the great benefits that he receives regarding salary, medical, etc. The warden, a Black woman, talked about the prison in a way that emphasized the cleanliness. Both were interesting characters and spoke a lot to the “usual” purpose of the tours. I tried not to look at the human beings that were behind the bars, as a sign of respect but I would have enjoyed conversation, letting them know that I am not here to view them; I am hear to listen to them. Many were part of the tour as they described their work within the kitchen, etc. and we would briefly hear their stories. Overall, the tour was a learning experience, simply in a way of being critical of touring a prison.

  • Bob Phillips the doors were about 5 feet high Bob… very small
    the audio tour story ifocused on there church-window shape and also claims they were low to prevent inmates from rushing guards..
    the stories that are told reveal more than it seems.. always

  • Bob Phillips

    From the picture, Nancy, I’m guessing that you were part of a tour of Eastern. A curiosity: How high were the door frames? I ask because once upon a time I enjoyed the hospitality of the since closed Cumberland County Prison in Carlisle, PA, at that time the oldest still operational custodial facility in the U.S., built in 1763, functionally a county jail but denominated a prison.
    So, on to the door frames. At Cumberland the door frames were about five feet high. I was told by more than one guard that the purpose of such low door jambs was that prisoners were required to bend over to exit the cells so that the guards might more easily club them (us) over the back of the head.
    It might have been that the average prisoner could have passed under a five foot door header upright. I dunno.
    Whether or not it was historical fact, that several guards knew the story and readily repeated it to me says something powerful about the dynamic of at least early 1980s”correctional”management.
    Eastern certainly set a “style” in mass incarceration. Auburn, of course, a conflicting, more economic, less “spiritual” one. Eastern put the “penitence” in penitentiary.
    On a bad night I can hear the howling of the souls confined at Eastern.

  • KayWhitlock

    Heart of darkness.