Louis Therox is well known for his interactions with the wierd and wonderful people of this world. From his now well documented interview with the late white supremacist Eugène Terre’Blanche to the ultra orthodox Christians of America.
In his latest foray he gets behind the bars of some of Miami’s most notorious prisons to give an insiders view into prison life. In the first episode Louis visited the worst part of Miami County Jail: the fifth and sixth floor of ‘Main Jail’.
This is where prisoners who are on remand are kept before they go to trial, the fact some have been there for years says a lot about the American justice system.
With up to 24 prisoners sharing a single cell the inmates had developed a code of conduct for prison life. Most of which involved settling any kind of issue with violence including stabbing their cell mates and beating newcomers to a pulp just to establish some kind of animalistic hierarchy.
If someone stole another inmate’s property whilst he was out of the cell, prisoners made no attempt at finding out who had done it. No, they simply asked the inmate who was closet to their bunk for a fight to settle the issue. The thinking being the prisoner closest to your bunk should be the one looking out for your property. It was in essence a code similar to the one Gorillas use to establish the Alpha male.
Prisoners openly boasted about exploiting the weaker members of the cell they were in, they saw this as the natural order of the prison code. None expressed any sympathy towards those who didn’t wish to partake in the code, they went as far as to say they would even extort protection money from relatives of the weaker inmates.
Then there was the whole sexually deviant behaviour by the inmates towards the female guards. With many prisoners ‘gunning’ or masturbating in front of the female guards, because as one put it they were only ‘human’. He even advocated them being given free pornography to help them stop debasing the female guards.
However despite all the shocking behaviour from the prisoners the most disturbing thing about watching Louis Therox wander his way round the prison was the acceptance of the prison guards of the behaviour that went on.
Even when putting a very young skinny white spectacle wearing kid into a cell full of violent black prisoners , the prison guards feared that he would be beaten up and even possibly raped. However no attempt was made to help the young man. He was left to the wolves and they hoped he would come out of the other side alive. He did for the record survive the night, by as he put it sitting on his bunk for 24 hours except one toilet break.
At no point was the code of violence and counter violence challenged by the prison authorities no attempt was made to talk to the prisoners about their behaviour, they were just left to wallow in their own misery.
Although Louis Therox attempted to paint the problem as being a failed prison with a lack of investment, there is a wider issue at hand. What is it about society whether that be in America or Britain that fails to deal with an ever growing pattern of crime-prison-crime-prison?
All I saw were victims, the victims of the men who had committed some heinous crimes such as murder. The prisoners themselves who were victims of society that never really gave them any thoughts or ideas on how to live life in a manner which is dignified and decent. The female prison guards who are put in a position where they are continually abused by the vile actions of the prisoners.
I couldn’t help but wonder that if the 24 prisoners per cell were sat down and given some Islamic culture that their behaviour might just improve. Human beings who are locked up for crimes cant just be left to rot and establish animal like codes of conduct. They must have something that tells them how to behave and gives them ideas for life.
The Islamic punishments for crime are swift and don’t allow people to linger in prisons before they are punished. The punishments also act as a deterrent to others and not as one prisoner put it he was being looked after by his boys on the outside. The rehabilitation of prisoners is not left to chance but is an active part of the culturing of the whole society, so to simply put someone in prison for a set time hoping he learns his lesson is not enough.
The problem American society seems to have is that unlike Islam it can offer these men nothing more than being locked up 24 to a cell for the rest of their lives.
