y Let’s face it, the entire justice system needs to be dismantled and rebuilt. It was designed to benefit rich, straight, cisgender, white men only. If you’re a POC and rich, you’ll sometimes get lucky. But, overall, we genuinely don’t have a justice system. There are so many problems. Right now, I want to talk about the prison system.

I get all kinds of horror stories about what goes on in the McCreary Federal Prison System. Kedric Buie was murdered right before he was supposed to be released at the one in Atlanta (which has since been shut down). It’s been over six years and his Mother still has no answers!

The one in Pine Knot, KY, is frightening. They barely feed the prisoners, read through their mail and withhold it from them for months, leave them out in the cold for several hours with very little to wear, beat them on a daily basis with nightsticks, and put their feet on the prisoner’s backs, call them the N-word, and say, “I’m your master now!”

I am NOT saying that criminals shouldn’t be punished. Of course, they should be. But, there’s a difference between punishment and torture. Also, there’s no prison reform. Prisoners need to learn about what they did wrong and be given the opportunity to better themselves.

Of course, there are prisoners that are beyond hope. I understand that. But there are inmates who want to make changes to their lives and eventually be given a second chance to do better. Another problem at the McCreary Federal Prison in Pine Knot, KY, is that they allow prisoners to do good work in order to get points. Once they get enough points, they can enroll in a program where they can get transferred to a medium-security prison. However, they will make excuse after excuse as to why they won’t transfer them. How can prisoners better themselves if they’re not given the incentive to change?

I’m praying that this will be the year that the prison system will be held accountable. Again, punish criminals. Implement prison reform. But no more torture.