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DOES ANYONE REMEMBER?

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article about how the new private prison at Hobbs had christened its opening with the stabbing death of one of its prisoners. And I wondered if anyone remembered this was the private prison's eighth stabbing in six months and how the statistic would make the new private prison the most dangerous twenty acres in New Mexico. More dangerous even than the Old Penitentiary.

And I remembered how Jerry Apodaca brought in out-of-staters from the federal system who claimed they could cure New Mexico's prison problems with get-tough attitudes and efficiency-expert magic. Weren't Malley and Arron their names?

And I remember how well the efficient, get-tough plan worked.

I remembered how aggressive homosexual prisoners would patrol the big efficient community showers, eyeing the fish, and sizing up their next victims. And how prisoners in dirty, ragged clothing, who hadn't been allowed to bathe for weeks, who had eaten rotten food out of necessity, who had been beaten by guards or victimized by other prisoners, would huddle together at night in big, over-crowded dormitories and pray they would get to see just one more morning.

And I remembered a cold night in February 1980 when efficiency demanded that thirteen guards keep watch on 1200 prisoners.

And I remembered the wet-iron, blood smell and the odor of smoke and sour food that permeated the prison for years after that cold February night.

And I remembered another time when a big, efficient, 75-man cell block blew up and how shorthanded guards weighed their lives against those they were keeping and did nothing but watch while a prisoner was beaten and stabbed to death.

And I remembered how prisoners hunkered under dining hall tables in a big, efficient, 150-man, dining hall while other prisoners hurled heavy metal food trays at each other and how those same few, outnumbered guards did nothing but leave the dining hall, lock the doors, and wait for the fight to end.

And I remembered how prisoners finally allowed to meet with Corrections Department officials and how all agreed there would never again be prisons in New Mexico with small staffs, big populations, big cell blocks, big dormitories, big dining halls, big day rooms or big community showers.

And I remembered how everyone agreed that prisons, from that day on, would be small and safe and secure.

And I remembered how well the new, small, safe, secure prisons worked. I was most encouraged that even if they didn't rehabilitate, at the very least they didn't make those prisoners they held any worse for the experience.

And I remembered how the mood changed; how small, safe, secure prisons lost favor because they weren't efficient and I wondered what had happened to safety and security and the lessons of the past.

And I learned the new answer to operating an efficient prison was architecture. I learned that the new answer was big private prisons with small staffs, big populations, big cell blocks, big dining halls, big day rooms and big community showers.

And all the time I was remembering, I wondered where you were while some of this was happening and if you wanted it to happen again?

Reilly Johnson is a 57 year old man serving a life sentence for first degree murder. In May, 1998, he began his sixteenth year in prison for a crime he claims he didn't commit. Write: Reilly Johnson 30222D, Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility K-2-Y, PO Box 639, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88004.

Reilly Johnson will be a regular contributor to the Crime & Punishment Forum, which features essays by individuals involved in the criminal justice system.