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Comment on the local 'Bike Back' scheme

Splinter | 20.09.2010 13:22

At first glance this appears to be a worthwhile scheme.

Disregarding the fact that certain groups and individuals have been doing this for years there are some pretty basic faults with this project.

While reducing buying items new, reusing items already brought and recycling unwanted items is to be encouraged - slave labour should not.

At first glance this appears an idea; long overdue for council backing is a sure winner.
Then on further reading you see who's doing all the work, i.e. volunteers - OK maybe and prisoners.
Certainly NOT OK unless they are receiving a decent wage for their industry.

And to say the alternative is worse (see below) is not a good enough position.

CLOSE DOWN PRISONS

This project could still be run without having people locked up, e.g. community service with training.

It’s not crime that breeds isolation in society, its society itself that breeds crime by destroying community.
It would be naïve and hypocritical to think that laws are made for all and in the name of all.
It is better to recognise that the law is made by the few to impose on the many.
Never ending trials, bureaucracy, bullying, the system of punishment, this justice mechanism steals the strength of those caught in its gears, strengthening its position in the world of power that flaunts its exclusive right to punish others.
In order not to offend public sensibility, the system of power has had to come up with subtler forms of punishment than the traditional torture and murder in its desire for vengeance.
Jail in its modern morphology, was created in the eighteen century.
Since then, mass internment has become the punishment of choice.
Contemporary prisons have become the status symbols of the dominant class,
who flaunt their exclusive right to punish others.
Prison is a ghost, a daily threat to those who dare to see beyond their social cages,
it’s a fundamental tool for maintaining social peace,
the last fortress of power in the state’s war against its people.
Prison functions according to efficient methods of repression, torture and manipulation;
every single aspect, from the architecture to the all encompassing rules,
promote the practice of repression and isolation.
Inside its walls there are rules similar to the ones ruling the society outside,
only they are even more tightly enforced.
Arrogance and silence stifles everything.
Detainees are particularly vulnerable as they suffer the repression in a more direct and evident way.
An illusion of hope is created in order to maintain order.
The detainees having something they can believe in are forced into being obedient.
There are benefits for those who cooperate and stay calm while the smallest signs of rebellion are recorded and punished with disciplinary convictions: cancellations of permits, isolation, transfers.
Drugs, mainly psychotropics, are distributed without measure, ensuring repression both at physical and intellectual levels.
Relationships between detainees and their behaviours are controlled to avoid solidarity relationships – which are seen as dangerous by the prison authorities because they are still able to shake the waters of the jail.
Transferring, or ghosting, prisoners to other jails, are the most used tactic to demoralise and break bonds between detainees.
The control must be continuous.


Splinter
- Original article on IMC Bristol: http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/693527