b P o rtla n d Observer M a rch 13, 1980
DO YOU REALLY WANT TO SAVE
ON YOUR FOOD BILL?
Behind the Walls
by Lurry Baker »35(121
David M righi »39816
Assistant Editor
O.S.P. Correspondent
(□j
17
CFRUITCPIE
Hostess
E D I TON s N O T E : The d tj/t-
cullies don t end at the tittle fo r men
serving time at the Oregon State
Penitentiary. The days fo llo w in g
release are often as trying as the
days spent behind bars This is the
third purl in a series that looks at the
different wuvs Jour men faced the
challenges of life outside.
says. "H e wants to see it the world's
the same as he left it. So you investi
gate. You go on expeditions."
Pretty soon West was running up
against an old way ol hie. I he hie
was measured in hustles and had the
odor o f heroin.
by Howard Goodman
Joe Hest: ” / was asking the man,
I was begging him, 'Man, I got to
have a jo b real bad or I'm going to
be in trouble. I know myself. I know
it'scorning. Please. ' "
Joe West owed himselt a good
lim e .
f orty months he'd been in prison.
A ll that time w ithout a woman,
without the sound ol live music late
at night, without the exultation ol
driving the neon midnight streets.
West got out ol Oregon Stale
P enitentiary and partied w ith a
vengeance. He spent his $100 gate
money in 24 hours. And he didn't
care.
He had a jo b prom ised. His
lather had lined one up at the foun
dry.
His lather had been slogging at
the foundry for 20 years. After 20
years, his father figured, the least
they could do is give a slot to a
man’ s son.
But no. They weren’ t taking
anyone on. The personnel o ffice
told West to try again in a week.
It went on that way, West says.
He was itching for money o f his
own. He was tired o f old friends
having to buy the drinks. He was
looking for work and not finding it.
A ll the chemistry for failure was
prepared. W ithin weeks West was
com m itting new crimes. W ithin a
year he was back in the pen.
West is a muscular, oval-faced
man. His wide eyes are tinged with
red, contrasting with the dark skin
ol his lace. His speech is gentle,
raspy and articulate.
Home is Portland by address, the
ghetto by character. At 32, West is
better educated than most prisoners.
He says he is about 40 hours away
from a bachelor’s degree in correc
tions.
And he has a background o f
skirmishes with the law. He lost a
big one in 1974. A judge sentenced
him to live years in Oregon State
Penitentiary for burglary.
He did his 40 months. He re
turned to Portland, to work at the
foundry, he thought, and to live
with a niece.
ASMAR ABDUL SEIFULLA
aka Joe West
It was not an easy adjustment, he
recalled one day recently in an OSP
visiting room.
“ I here’s a lot o f fear, man, in a
dude. A ll of a sudden you’ ve got to
take care of yourself,” he says. " I f
a guy’ s got any sense, he’s afraid
when he’ s getting out. I f you’ re not
afraid, you’re not going to make it.
“ I t ’s not necessarily an advantage
to live with your fam ily,” he says.
‘ ‘ There can be crowding, there can
be these demands they make on you.
‘ ‘ They’ re watching you all the
tim e, even when they say they
aren’t, looking for tell-tale signs o f
regression to bad habits. I f you stay
out all night, they think you’re with
your old friends.”
His relatives acted as though they
were owed a psychological debt for
having put up with a prisoner. West
says.
“ It's not a conscious thing, but
they lay trips on y o u ,” he says.
"T hey’ve been to the parole board
lo r you, they’ ve seen the warden,
they’ve visited you. When you get
out they want to be paid back.”
An ex-prisoner, meanwhile, has a
natural urge to taste his freedom.
“ A guy wants a woman, he wants
to party, he wants to see his friends
—even if they’ re bad friends,” West
“ I just crash the door and show
my pistol. I stick them up all over.
I ’m just being an outlaw. Soon I ’ ve
got them all gun-shy.
" I see them on the street. I ’m just
knocking them over."
It ended with a bust. The police
got him for armed robbery.
West stood apart, he said. But he
West says he was arrested for a
was living on borrowed money and
crime he didn’t commit and convict
tiring ol a thin wallet. He was find
ed on fabricated evidence.
ing no jobs, though he says he
But that s all right, he says. Fair is
haunted the employment offices.
fair.
The police couldn’ t get evi
And it one economic system closed
dence on the dozens o f robberies he
its doors. West knew, he would have
to turn to another one.
did commit, he says. They couldn’t
get
any ol the dealers to(lextily.
He tried a third time at the foun
‘ ‘ The police do funny things
dry, begging this time.
when they know you’ re hustling,”
" I ’ m tapped out,” he told a per
he
says. “ They’ re going to stick you
sonnel worker. ‘ ‘ I ’ m all the way
any
way they can—just like I’ll do
tapped out. You got to give me a
anything I can on my trip .”
job. I know what’ s going to hap
He drew 18 years at OSP for ar
pen.”
med
robbery. He’s done nearly two
“ But he says he can't do noth
o f them.
ing,” West said. “ I know he’ s lying.
Someday he'll lace release again.
1 can see he’ s hiring people.
How
would he make it different, if
“ Now I ’m hot. I see an old friend
he had the power?
at a clothing store. This is a guy with
“ I think release should be more
a bag. I tell him I’ m broke. And he’ s
caring
about a m an,” he says.
a friend. He gives me this bag. He
“
You’
re
out there without money,
says I don’ t owe him nothing for it.
without people to lean on. I t ’ s a
“ And I ’ m back in the life ."
trip, it’s a real trip. No one wants to
The bag o f heroin was a small-
be accountable lor a guy anymore
business loan. It was a drug dealer’s
once he’s outside the walls.
first inventory. West started selling.
" I think prison makes cripples of
Soon he’d be using.
people. Alnd I think it ought to help
‘ ‘ Now I ’ m on my w ay,” West
a guy become as independent as
says, remembering that first bag.
possible.
"N ow I ’ m back on the way to the
" In the ideal situation,” he says,
grave.”
“ I ’d like to live by myself a couple
The money was immediate. West
of months, work-free. A guy's got
says. Within four or five days o f his
to have time to unwind—emotion
first sale, he rented an apartment
ally, physically, spiritually to un
and bought new clothes. He was a
wind. I ’d lake my time and really
man about town again.
look for a good job. If I had a place
‘ ‘ Rags to riches, ’ ’ he says.
to stay by myself for two months,
He was snorting at first to be
rent and food paid for, I could do it.
sociable, he says. W ith in two to
" I he state can keep the hundred
three months, he was pretty well
bucks. I hat's pocket change.
hooked.
“ A lot o f guys do real well in
"W here I come from —the ghetto
prison,” he says. "O u t of prison,
—everybody’ s snorting dope,” he
it’s like Mars.
says. " It's hard to make a connec
"M en go to work every day in
tion with any other kind o f life.
here, they learn to converse real
"W h o ’ s got time for an ex-con?
well on social problems. They nour
There’s not that many humanitar
ish m this incubator. A ll the nutri
ians out there. Who's got time for
ents are fed in. He needs a good
an ex-con except another ex-con?”
leeling, he sees the priest. He can't
Using, he had finances to meet.
get love, but there’ s a lot ol brother
He dusted o ff a slew o f old skills—
hood.
robbing cash registers, short-chang
“ Then the adm inistration says
ing merchants. Ten dollars here,
out you go,” he says.
twenty there. Then, for real money,
” I hey could give you a print-out
he robbed dope dealers.
when you leave with some phone
"O h , I'd be robbing dope dealers
numbers and addresses. It you need
right and le ft,” he said. " I t ’s easy.
lood, here’s the food stamps. If you
These are people who can’ t go to the
need a job, here’ s a number that
police.
could help. II you’ re just lonely and
need someone to talk with, here’s a
number.
"B ut they’ re so busy getting you
o il the sheet, they don’ t have time,
man.”
©
€
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Shower aids Moore Street Center kitchen
(Reprinted from The Oregon States
man.)
Neighbors enjoyed refreshments during kitchen shower.
U f Taylor opana gift» for Moore Street Center’» kitchen.
<
Because a volunteer worker had
noticed, during a kitchen assign
ment, that the Center was prac
tically devoid o f utensils to properly
prepare a meal, friends and neigh
bors o f The Salvation Army Moore
Street Com m unity Center, held a
kitchen shower recently. The Cen
ter’ s kitchen is now stocked with an
ample supply o f utensils.
The shower, sponsored by the
H u m b o ld t
N e ig h b o r h o o d
A ssociation, was held in mid-
February; the volunteer worker was
M adeline Nosbush, Association
Chairperson.
Besides giving us all these
beautiful kitchen utensils, says Ms.
Nosbush, ‘ ‘ the neighbors got to
know each other and also had an
opportun ity to see The Salvation
Arm y's big community center and
its heated swimming pool.”
Currently, staff at the center is
conducting a feasibility study to
determine whether there is a need
for an expanded program o f Senior
activities in the neighborhood. For
inform ation on the current Senior
program or the schedule o f the
hours o f use for the heated pool at
the center, phone Elizabeth Taylor,
282-2572, or call in at The Salvation
A rm y M oore Street C om m unity
Center, 5430 N. Moore St.
EXODUS
'4 dlucafisnaf a n e /
fâeedet
1518 NE KILLINGSWORTH
PORTLAND. OREGON 97211
284 7997
EXODUS
MARCH
The House of Exodus youth program will be a major part of the agenda, of
the local alcohol conference, to be held at the first Congregational Church,
1126 SW. Park, Portland, Oregon, on March 20, 1980 between the hours of
8:30 am and 4:00 pm.
This conference is sponsored by the Local Alcohol Planning Committee
(L.A.P.C.) of Multnomah County Oregon.
Other agenda subjects are:
WORKSHOP STYLE
A- Organizing a prevention program in your geographical area.
B- Alcohol abuse and family dynamics.
C- Main streaming youthful substance abusers into the labor market.
D- Alcohol education: Drinking values clarification for adolescence.
Even though this conference will more than likely be represented by those
who are providing services to the various communities of Portland, I am en
couraging those citizens, especially those citizens with teenage children to
attend. Get involved, we need your input...
Thomas Boothe, Ph D