The article that will be discussed below was written by a man named Robert Barton and published in Politico on February 10, 2022. It is called ‘Frequent Prison Lockdowns Backfire. I Know From Experience.’ – and Barton actually does, since he is currently serving the 27th year of his 30-years-to-life sentence at the penitentiary in Coleman, Florida. This penitentiary – pictured in Appendix A – alongside 121 more prisons was placed on a lockdown by the Federal Bureau of Prisons in late January. A lockdown, Barton (2022) explains, is the restriction of every person in a unit or a whole prison to their cells for 22-24 hours a day with no access to recreation, education, or family communication. The lockdown during which this article was published occurred after a gang altercation took place at a Texan institution but was pronounced nationwide. This means that more than 150,000 people across the country became affected by something to which they bore no relation.
Being in the prison system for more than a quarter of a century, the author knows that lockdowns have been a common occurrence for a long time. What he finds disturbing, though, is that the Bureau seems to rely on them to ‘handle’ any issue, from minor disputes between residents to chronic personnel shortages. Barton (2022) believes that this culture – of the system viewing its primary function as warehousing and its residents as animals to lock away at any inconvenience – must be eradicated. Seeing how the Bureau’s current director, Michael Carvajal, has recently announced his retirement, Biden’s administration soon will be capable of starting to take the first steps toward the much-needed change.
Reference
Barton, R. (2022). Frequent prison lockdowns backfire. I know from experience. Politico.
Appendix A
