by Marlon Brock
Has our country become one giant correctional institution?
The steel bars have been closing us in, one at a time. With enough of these 'security' techniques in place, the cage will be complete.
Americans are not typically
aware of how their federal and state prison systems work. What we think
we know, we learned from watching television. When I took my first walk
through at FCI (Federal Correctional Institution) El Reno Oklahoma as a
new employee, I was surprised at how non-Hollywood real prison life is.
Frankly, all I knew about prison life was what I saw on television or
at the movies. Not even close.
As I got closer to retiring
from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP), it began to dawn on me that
the security practices we used in the prison system were being
implemented outside those walls. “Free worlders” is prison slang for the
non-incarcerated who reside in the “free world.” In this article I am
going to compare a number of practices used in federal prisons to those
being used today in the “free world.”
You might find that our country may be one giant correctional institution.
Cameras & Movement Tracking
(Source: Joern Haufe / Getty Images)
In federal prisons, cameras
are everywhere. The reason, of course, is to help maintain security and
keep track of prisoners. Inmates know that if they break any rules or
policies, they can be readily identified if the event occurred in view
of a camera. The cameras remind the inmates that they do not have any
freedom or privacy, and that they live under total control.
Unfortunately, the “free
world” is now subject to the widespread use of video surveillance and
movement tracking. This goes beyond cameras, which have become
virtually ubiquitous now. The federal government has been handing out
grants to create sophisticated surveillance grids in cities across the
country.
These surveillance grids
frequently include license plate readers — some with the ability to log
1,200 license plates per hour, logging timestamps and location data —
giving the government a way to track people and analyze their movement
patterns. Some cities post license plate readers to log every single vehicle that enters or leaves
its boundaries. Many cities have turned their police cars into roving
data collectors by outfitting them with mobile license plate scanners.
A man from California discovered that he had been photographed 112 times over
the course of a couple years — from just one police cruiser mounted
with a license plate scanner! The local databases of movement data are
integrated with the federal government through its fusion centers
located all over the country.
The government also has the ability to use facial-recognition software
in conjunction with its surveillance grid to instantly identify
individuals by comparing their photograph to biometric databases created
using BMV photographs. Facial recognition cameras can be set up
to accurately identify a person against a database of millions of images
in less than one second. The government can then potentially log their
locations and using the data for any purpose it wants.
As the usage of these
technologies grows, the “authorities” will practically know where you
are at any time. The British have the greatest level of electronic
surveillance in the world. Their movements are said to be
recorded 3,000 times a week. The United States is not that far
behind. In some ways, with the numerous NSA spying programs,
the USA leads the world in destroying personal privacy. Today’s
youngest generation will grow up never knowing what privacy is.
Drug Testing
The federal prison inmate drug abuse monitoring program has been going on for decades since the capability was invented. At any time, a prisoner can be tested for intoxicants using urine, sweat, saliva, and hair samples taken by force. After years of perfecting the process on inmates, it was introduced to the American public.
On September 15, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed Executive Order 12564,
establishing the goal of a Drug-Free Federal Workplace. Additionally,
in 2010, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(SAMHSA) finalized a new rule that allows federal agencies to use sweat,
saliva and hair in federal drug testing programs that only tested
urine. Since then, many private businesses and corporations had to
begin testing their employees in order to keep or obtain federal
contracts. Under federal guidelines for employee testing, if a person
takes medicine that was not prescribed to him, he has committed a
federal drug abuse offense and may be fired. Children in public schools are also subjected to involuntary random drug testing.
The inmates were the guinea
pigs for a program now being regularly employed on Americans. This
process conditions Americans to be accustomed to regularly submitting
bodily fluid samples to the government, lessening their resistance to
data collection and intrusion in other areas.
Metal Detection & Weapon Confiscation
In prison, detection and
confiscation of weapons is a necessity. Prisoners cannot be allowed the
freedom to possess objects that could potentially be used to cause harm
to others. The security of the facility relies on the prisoners
remaining disarmed.
With that said, not even
prisons can be guaranteed to be weapon free. Inmates are clever, and
can fashion any piece of metal into a makeshift weapon. They are also
prolific smugglers. To mitigate this risk, prisoners and visitors are
put through metal detector checkpoints to keep them disarmed. Any
metallic contraband is confiscated.
Treating prisoners this way
is one thing. In a prison setting, security trumps liberty. The
liberties of the inmates have been curtailed through due process on an
individual basis. But these prison tactics have crept out into the
“free world.” Now, virtually all government buildings use metal
detectors to screen incoming visitors and even their own personnel.
This establishes a climate of fear of weapons and a false sense of
security among those within such “weapon free zones.” If a prison can’t
proclaim to be weapon free, how can any place outside of prison make
such arrogant and naive claims?
Crowd Control
Helmets, face shields,
batons, knee guards, tear gas, wedge formations, line formations, half
steps, full steps, pinning tactics — all of these phrases are associated
with prison crowd control. As I look at today’s police and how they
attempt crowd control it reminds me of my days in federal prison as the
Hostage Negotiation Team (HNT) leader. The HNT worked closely with the
Special Operations and Response Team (SORT) on both monthly local
training and annual training at Fort Gruber in Muskogee Oklahoma. SORT
membership is selective and highly practiced. The teams must be
familiar with hand signals and verbal commands, as well as certain
maneuvers that are often referred to as “stomp and drag.” These tactics
are designed to help quell disturbances — the FBOP word for “riot” — by
forcing inmates in the direction that SORT wants them to move. This
training takes place monthly for SORT members and annually for the rest
of the FBOP staff.
The next time you see
police engaged in crowd control on television you are watching what was
perfected by prisons official through years of practice and real life
action. I participated in five disturbances. After observing law
enforcement agencies dress up in intimidating riot suits and mimic the
behavior of SORT, it is clear that police are using prison tactics to
intimidate and control civilian protesters.
Checkpoints & Random Pat Searches
In federal prison, all
inmates are subject to an immediate pat search by any staff member,
anywhere, at any time. If the inmate refuses, he or she is “arrested,”
which entails being cuffed and escorted to administrative segregation —
otherwise known as the jail within the jail. The pat search is used to
detect contraband. All inmates returning from industrial work programs
in medium and low security institutions are pat searched and metal
detected before being allowed to return to their dorm. Additionally,
inmates in medium and low security institutions are pat searched when
they leave food service or the “chow hall.” In high and maximum
security institutions, inmates are pat searched every time they move.
Movement in these institutions is highly controlled.
Compare this to police
roadblocks and checkpoints used to perform warrantless searches for
contraband. When a person is stopped by city, county, or state police,
they are visually inspected, asked questions concerning their
activities, and may be asked to submit to a vehicle or personal search.
At federal roadblocks, a subject can be directed to a secondary search
area at the discretion of the observing officer. There, the person can
be searched for contraband regardless of any objections, just like in a
federal prison. There are dozens of federal roadblocks on roads in the southwestern United States, many of them permanent and located up to 100 miles away from the border.
It isn’t just drivers being put through such intrusion. There is also the matter of “stop and frisk”
searches which are taking place in several areas of the country. These
intrusive stops involve the stopping of a pedestrian for any reason,
followed by being subjected to a police officer’s questioning and a
warrantless search of their pockets, purses, bags, and property — just
like a prisoner.
Mail Surveillance
(Source: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)
Every piece of mail sent to
an inmate in federal prison is opened, searched, and may be read
depending on the dictates from the institutions intelligence office. In
medium and high security institutions, all mail is delivered to the
unit officer unsealed so that it can be read before being delivered to
the mail room. Inmate mail is controlled and may be copied if it is
determined that there is possible criminal activity being discussed
either blatantly or in code. If something is detected it may be
rejected and returned to the inmate if it violates policy. Two
examples of “rejected correspondence” are an inmate’s attempt to conduct unapproved business, or writing another inmate without permission.
Recent revelations have made it clear that Americans’ mail is being surveilled as well. The New York Times reported
on how the United States Postal Service uses a “Mail Isolation Control
and Tracking program” to create a permanent record of who is
corresponding with each other via snail mail. The program — secretly
established in 2001 and not revealed for over a decade — assists the
government in implementing blanket surveillance of every single resident
of the United States. Each piece of physical mail is photographed and
stored in a database. Law enforcement has unfettered access to this
data without even the requirement of obtaining a warrant. About 160
billion pieces of mail end up being recorded per year.
Telephone Monitoring
Is the NSA listening to your phone calls?
For decades the FBOP has
possessed the capability to monitor outgoing telephone calls. However,
their system required staff to sit and listen to the calls which took
staff away from direct supervision of inmates. In the early 2000s, a new
system was put in place that allowed any and every phone in an
institution to be immediately monitored and the call recorded.
Just like in a federal
prison, the NSA has the capability to track and monitor anyone’s phone
conversations without recourse. The agency can monitor text messages. They can collect locations, times, and a log of every phone number that has been dialed by any phone in the United States. The government can set up fake base stations to intercept phone calls. They can hack the applications on a person’s smart phone and spy on their usage. The NSA can even crack cellphone encryption.
Unlike the inmates who have
no choice in the matter of telephone monitoring, the American people
have been told about the spying but have decided not to do anything
about it.
Lockdowns
When a correctional
institution has its daily operations disturbed, often times it results
in a lockdown. Lockdowns usually occur after a disturbance, weather
concerns, inmate escapes, rumors of a disturbance about to occur,
rumored escape attempts, and institution wide searches are some reasons
to lockdown.
The most notable “free
world” lockdown in recent memory occurred in Boston, Massachusetts. This
lockdown mirrors a federal prison lockdown that is called when the
entire institution is to be searched. That is exactly what occurred in
Boston. In April 2013 the Boston suburb of Watertown was locked down to
the point where no one could enter or leave the town, while 9,000 law
enforcement personnel and military took part in searching just about
every backpack, vehicle, and home that they could get away with.
Some of the searches were
voluntary, but many were not. As SWAT teams performed systematic
house-to-house searches, videos were captured of families being ripped
from their home without a warrant so the police could help themselves to
the inside of their homes. What resulted had the look of prisoners
being removed from their cells by a SORT unit. Watch for yourself:
- Police perform house-to-house raids in Watertown MA
- Systematic House-to-House Raids in Locked-Down Watertown, Mass.
The Watertown lockdown was
practice for future declarations of martial law. Those tactics had been
used and perfected in our prison systems for years. Now the “free world”
is getting the prison treatment with little objection from the public.
The lockdown was not necessary and served mostly to measure the
public’s reaction and to establish a sense of fear and intimidation. I
think it worked.
Snitching
The last thing I want to
mention is what I call the “Moscow Law.” While growing up during the
cold war, I was taught that in the USSR, people were expected to watch
their neighbors, strangers, and even family and friends, and report any
suspicious activity to the local police. We in America have that law.
Read it below. Did you know it exists?
Title 18 U.S.C. § 4: Misprision of felony: Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
In prison, there are “snitches” everywhere. Believe me, they are not just the inmates, they are also staff. Programs like Infragard
are attempting to do the same thing in the “free world” as it is in the
imprisoned world. Once these programs get started, they are almost
impossible to stop. What are we paying our law enforcement to do?
Protect us or detect us? You decide.
Policy and program statements from the Bureau of Prisons are available at: http://www.bop.gov/