Portland Observer Thursday, Juna 21,1979 Paga 5
Behind the W all
We guarantee
tomorrow today.
by Larry Baker H 3502!
O.S.P. Correspondent
Prisoner's Legal Services Accused of 'Racism' Again
Life, H ealth, G roup, and
Over the past month Prisoner’ s
l egal Services has worked very hard
at try in g to convince the Black
prisoners at O .S.P. that PLS
provides equal treatm ent in dis
pensing legal services and advice.
Recently the director (who has
subm itted his resignation) and a
woman staff member from PLS ad
dressed a group o f Black prisoners
and tried very hard to convince them
o f PLS’s past efforts to help them
with their problems. Naturally, this
is the time for the agency’s refund
ing, it’ s only the normal thing to do
— especially when a quarter million
d o lla rs o f the Oregon taxpayers
money is up for grabs.
‘ Behind the W all’ has tried to keep
the Oregon public informed o f PLS’ s
activities, but there were those who
believed ‘ Behind the W all’ was too
critical Well! The proof has finally
come out o f the pudding.
It is our b e lie f that PLS is
displaying racism at O.S.P. in the
highest manner through its new
operation o f teaching a group o f
prisoners how to become para-legals.
A t this very moment there are no
Black inmates in PLS’ s classes. The
one Black who was in the class is now
safely tucked away in the Isolation
and Segregation unit (the hole) o f
this prison.
Since there are no Black em
ployees employed by PLS and no
Black prison instructors on their
team or on their board o f directors
— W H O IS F O O L IN G W HO?
The Blacks make up almost one-
fo u rth o f the prison population.
Black inmates need their legal needs
met too, but not with just smooth
words. I f this type o f action con
tinues by PLS, Black prisoners and
their families can just forget it.
Once again ‘ Behind the W all*
pleads with the Oregon legislators,
statesmen and public. Do not sup
port racism in prison! Do not sup
port Prisoner’s Legal Services!
R ehabilitation
punishment, in his case, serves only
as an additive to heighten his exile
ment.
Rehabilitation, in his case, is the
only positive answer. Anything else
is both a waste o f his time, and some
one elses resources.
To rehabilitate the crim inal, or,
unstable mind, you need to furnish
trained psychologists. For only by
unlocking the many contradictions
that exist in the crim inal, or, un
stable mind, can true recovery occur.
neurotic as he is. S trict disci
plinarians w ho th in k punish
ment and rew ord the answer to
everything. He, the child, should be
placed in a situation where he can
obtain m ental recovery. There
should be psychologists to help him,
who have been trained to deal with
crises o f the mind.
I f it doesn’ t work, if he continues
to rebel, then more drastic measures
should be taken — but always with
the emphasis on mental health and
recovery.
I ’ m not talking about turning a
child into a zombie either — I ’ m talk
ing about taking an unstable mind
and helping to work the kinks out to
make it stable.
This should start at the adolescent
level, and i f necessary, work all the
way through the adult level.
Only in this way w ill you, the tax
payer see any serious results from
your efforts.
Rehabilitative programs today are
a joke, yet I find it very hard to laugh
at them.
I t ’ s up to you, the person who
pays for all these programs. I t ’s up
to you to change this existing system
fo r the better. The system I ’ ve
outlined would cost less to operate
than it costs to operate the peniten
tiaries as they stand today. O f course,
the return would be infinately richer.
by Richard Wilcox H4I449
Rehabilitation — the sheer beauty
o f it, the utter foolishness o f who it’s
entrusted to. I have much respect for
the taxpayer who pushes for rehabili
tation in the correctional facilities.
There is the old philosophy o f
punishment for crimes committed. It
has been proven that punishment, as
a detcrent, doesn’ t w ork. This is
why.
For the stable, or true mind, one
does not need the threat o f punish
ment to see that some action he
m ight com m it w ill, i f not im
mediately, then eventually, serve his
own self-destruction. To take, one
must give — anything else is a con
tradiction in reality, and the stable
mind sees this.
It is only the unstable mind that
refuses to see reality, or, the final
consequences o f his immediate ac
tions. T herefore, the threat o f
The problem here is that the
rehabilitative programs today are not
designed to help a man in his
situation.
The rehabilitation programs that
exist today are designed to help a
man learn a trade, or go to school,
while he’s in the penitentiary — and
after he leaves to find a job or help
him continue schooling.
The irony is that the few men who
do succeed, through those various
programs, weren’ t in need o f reha
bilitation. He was on the road to
recovery before he even entered any
o f the programs.
The point I ’m driving at is that the
rehabilitative programs that exist
today do not help the true criminal.
I t ’ s really quite simple, and it’s a
damn shame that all those resources
have been wasted on unnecessary
rehabilitative programs.
First you must make sure the cake
is whole before you place icing on it.
The various rehabilitative programs
existing today put icing on the cake
regardless o f whether it ’ s whole or
not. Then they wonder why it crum
bles at the first crisis.
I ’ ve spent a lot o f time on the
question o f what’ s wrong with my
thinking, what causes my unstability.
In doing so, I ’ ve come to understand
what’s wrong with the world around
me. Specifically what’s wrong with the
world I live in, and I am a prisoner.
Instead o f placing a child in a ,
situation where *he overseers are as
J .P . Stevens b o yco tt director speaks here
David Dyson, field director for the
J.P. Stevens lawful boycott, w ill be
in Portland, Thursday, June 28th to
discuss the national boycott o f the
Stevens com pany, the n a tio n ’ s
second largest textile manufacturer.
He w ill discuss the boycott at a
reception on the 28th, 7:00 p.m., at
Osbeck’ s Rose Manor Inn, 4534 S.E.
McLoughlin Boulevard. The public
is invited and refreshments w ill be
served.
Dyson, 32, is also a United Pres
byterian m inister, and previously
had been a member o f the National
Farm W orkers M in istry. He now
directs the field activities o f the
Amalgamated Clothing and Textile
Workers Union, A F L-C IO , in the
Stevens boycott.
The General Assembly o f the
U nited Presbyterian C hurch has
called on its more than 2.5 million
members “ to re fra in fro m p u r
chasing any goods produced by the
J.P. Stevens Company.”
“ Community people interested in
social and economic justice are urged
to hear the Reverend Dyson on June
28th,” Roger Yockey, chairman of
the Citizens Committee For Support
o f the J.P. Stevens Boycott, said.
J.P. Stevens is a m ulti-national
textile m anufacturing corporation
operating in the U.S. and six foreign
countries, exploying 44,100 people
— none o f whom are covered by a
union contract.
Blacks make up 22 per cent o f the
company’ s work force but have only
fo u r per cent o f the w hite-collar
jobs. Blacks comprise 25 per cent o f
the blue-collar workers and 56 per
cent o f the service workers. Blacks
have nine per cent o f the skilled craft
jobs, but 38 per cent o f the unskilled
labor jobs. A U.S. D istrict Court
ruled in 1975 that J.P. Stevens had
engaged in racial discrimination. The
company is under investigation o f
multiple violations o f the 1964 Civil
Rights Act.
Since 1963 the com pany has
engaged in u n la w fu l e ffo rts to
prevent union organization o f its
workers, hence the national boycott
o f its products.
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JUNE 1979
EXODUS
ON SUMMERTIME:
Summertime is the peak of nature's growth —
respect it soberly.
ON THE DIMENSIONS OF THE WORLD:
There are two worlds; the world that we can
measure with line and rule, and the world that
we feel with our hearts and imaginations.
Leigh H unt
ON REPUTATION.
To disregard what the world thinks of us is not
only arrogant but utterly shameful.
Cicero
ON REPUTATION:
A person has a reputation, and is no longer
FREE, but must respect it.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
ON REPUTATION:
The solar system has no anxiety about its
reputation.
Ralph Waldo Emerson