Rehabilitating Incarcerated Men: A Mismatch of Expectation?

Hey guys,

I am posting one of my early poems, which reflects the concern of almost all incarcerated me whom I talked with, while I was a volunteer-in-training at the Mark Stiles Unit in Beaumont, Texas.

THE CAGE AND I

The big cage chained arms were gently opened
Releasing learned bird for a crisp, fresh air
Expecting trees with welcoming spirits
Hoping acceptance;forgetting the past.

'The big cage gave me opportunities,'
Said one, 'I realized my immorality!'
Repented and treated, while at the pen,
Ready to enjoy freedom with the sage.

Indeed, for a short time, I enjoyed liberty
Soaring up the sky, chirping good old songs.
Climate changed, my spirit gloomed!
Freedom wasn't good; the cage I now longed.

Flying 'round the forest looking for a tree
To understand me. All now abhor me.
Forget-me-not closed itself completely.
All I thought before, she still needs me.

Heart yearnings for a better tomorrow
Like forget-me-not, leaves curled, became hollow.
Distance myself even to my fellow swallows..
In solitude, ended up crying in the meadow.

Comfortable niche was hard to find
Skills learned at the cage, unappealing.
No more free banana; no one's providing.
I ended up flying from tree to tree maligned.

Hunger took its toll consequently;
Dreams of the cage coming relentlessly.
Thoughts of abundant food, it pushed me...
Hit again a tree to go back in rapidly.

The big cage is surely my place to be.
Limiting, but I'm feed abundantly.
Freedom outside isn't nectar or a tea.
Trees don't want me. Please don't blame me.

(c)2007 edmund melig industan

I will never forget that day when a caucasian guy in his 40s, who's soon to be released. He tightly held my hand before I prayed for him. Then, he said," Please keep remembering me. There are times that I am afraid to think that soon I will be free. I don't know how the outside world would accept me. I am afraid that I won't survive. I learned more livelihood skills while here; however, I am afraid that nobody would give me a chance to use it and better myself."

Now, what's wrong with such feeling from a tough guy?

With rehabilitation as the goal, the American criminal justice system has been providing educational services and opportunities to the incarcerated men. Some even received their associate and baccalaureate degrees while at the pen. Don't you think there is a mismatch with what the justice system has been extending to rehabilitate those in the pen and the society's treatment with those, who has been out of the pen?

Needing More Space in Jail? Don't Make it as a Dormitory of the Privilege!

Anna Gorman, a Los Angeles Times staff writer, wrote last Sunday, June 22, 2008, that the L.A. County is expanding its screening at the county jail. The main goal is to determine who needs to be deported after serving time. The subsidiary goal is to free up jail beds.

Deportation is a good way of freeing up jail beds, but one more thing that the state has to consider is the privileges that it is currently giving to these incarcerated men and women. While ACLU/So. California's legal director reported on April 24, 2007 that the current jail conditions is inconsistent with basic human values, thereby, associating the L.A. Men's Central Jail as a version of Devil's island, my observation in the mid-90s of the American prison is the complete opposite.

I know that the condition, at least, at Mark Stiles Unit in Beaumont, Texas wasn't despicable and inhuman. I regularly visited the unit on weekends in mid-90s, as a volunteer chaplain, who later became a member of an interim committee of the unit's proposed literacy program. There was a time that all the volunteer chaplains-in-training were invited to dine with the inmates as part of the orientation. Being my first, I immediately was shocked to see the place. The entire jail and the inmates were clean, and the mess hall was excellent. As I saw the food, I forgot that I was in a pen. I thought that I was in an immaculately clean fast food restaurant. There were lots of steaming food: mashed potatoes with gravy, corn on the cob, meat loaf, steak, fish, vegetables, and dessert. As a family man and a newly-hired Filipino teacher with the Port Arthur Independent School District, my mind immediately contrasted what I saw. American prisons are a paradise, while Philippine jails (and pretty sure, other developing countries) is a Devil's island, a place where inhabitants are deprived of food, sleep, and sanitation. American prisons are first-class dormitories, while the Philippine jails are pigpens. American prisons have five-star restaurants; most Philippine jails do not even have a closed mess hall. (Incarcerated men squat, while eating. They do not have enough food to go around, just like what people see in the TV program, Prison Break. A group of the prisoners, with the closed watch of armed prison guards, even have to push carts around town to collect any leftovers from the restaurants in mid-day.) Incarcerated men are well-fed, while averaged working people outside the pen can even hardly get by with the salary they receive at the end of the day. Incarcerated felons in the U.S. are the privileged ones; most working people, who pay taxes to keep bad people off the streets are impoverished. No wonder, most of those felons that I have dealt with on one-on-one counseling, were ambivalent in terms of getting out of jail. They knew that life at the pen is easy and care-free than life outside the pen. No wonder, recidivism is high. The Los Angeles Times reported in May 20,2008 that there were 16,000 inmates in Los Angeles county, who were rearrested ( and charged with new crimes)since the large-scale releases started in mid-2002.

Don't you think it is high time for us to really consider how to properly treat our incarcerated men and women? Rehabilitation is our main goal, but that does not mean we have to pamper them with all the 'goodies' while at the pen, that they would rather prefer to commit another crime, soon after they are released, because life outside the penitentiary is harsh and tough. Pampering them with all the amenities, that even those law-abiding citizens have been deprived of, is not rehabilitation at all. Having them realize that life at the pen is a punishment and not a dormitory of the privileged ones would surely bring them to their senses...to think twice before they'd commit another crime. This way, we might have more beds in jails.

It's Summertime; It's Sizzling Hot in California

Oh! It's so hot in California. Yesterday, the high was 116 degrees fahrenheit. Today, it hasn't gone down. I always feel sleepy. I wanted to finish The Magical Ikam (Mat), a short story to be included in my book project, Bedtime-Pastime; however, the heat wave is hindering my concentration. I can think of a scoop or two of ice cream or a dip at the beach every minute, but I have problem going deeply into the dream of my 12-year old protagonist.

Since my family has decided to drive to the beach to cool down, I have decided to post my summertime poem today. I hope you will take time to read and, if possible, comment on it.

OH, SUMMER LOVE
(A Triolet)

Oh, Summer Love, you're hot as season brings
Exuding beauty reaching digit three.
All eyes in you: the paupers and the kings,
Oh,Summer Love, you're hot as season brings.
Wish you will lend my ears as my heart sings,
A melody that's from a bourgeoisie;
Oh, Summer Love, you're hot as season brings...
Exuding beauty reaching digit three.

(c) 2007 edmund melig industan

Triolet is a poetry form which originated in France. It has eight iambic pentameter lines with two rhyme schemes (A and B). The first two lines are repeated as a final couplet and the first is also repeated as the fourth line.

NOTE: Oh, Summer Love is part of my upcoming book, 150+1 Poems on The Experimental Dasang and 45 OTHER POETRY FORMS: An Anthology

CULTURAL SIEVE AND SAME-SEX MARRIAGE

In the book, Mirror of Man, anthropologist Clyde Kluckhohn describes culture as a sieve. Any new idea has to pass through it. Since same-sex marriage is fairly new idea, and a very delicate, sensitive, and complex issue because it affects the core (spiritual) value of many, it is not surprising that it would not easily pass through in many cultural sieves.

For nominal Christian, non-Christian and radicals, same-sex marriage is just part of a cultural dynamics. They will not consider it difficult to adapt and integrate to their existing way of life. However, for traditionalist and biblically-rooted Christians, this cultural mesh is more stringent. Any profane idea would take awhile or will have difficulty passing through it. Why? It is because another mesh(the biblical norm) is superimposed to the communal mesh.

As a non-homophobic Christian sociologist, who is living in California, I seriously have thought of same-sex marriage ever since the San Francisco Mayor allowed it in 2004, where 4,000 marriage licenses were issued, albeit invalidated when California Supreme Court struck it down. Now, that the same court has changed its position, hence, has legalized same-sex mariage, effective on June 16, in the state of California, stirring protest and further court battles, I have to think some more about it.

I am torn between three overlapping sets of cultural sieves: communal sieve is my culture A as a member of the society,in general; carreer sieve is my culture B as a member of the 'social science world' obligated to try one's best to look at a phenomenon bias-free, and spiritual sieve is my culture C having been born, raised, and with faith that is deeply-rooted in biblical dogma.

The problem is that marriage is not only a socially approved mating relationship, it also is a sacrament of the church. In the Scripture, it is specifically a mating relationship between man and woman. Mating outside such relationship, is considered an abomination. To impose same-sex marriage on the traditionalist and biblically-oriented citizens is like forcing,tearing or wounding that spiritual mesh, and beyond that, rubbing too much salt onto it. This problem wouldn't be easy to resolve.

Possible solution to the problem:
1) Rather than passing a ballot measure in November that would effectively overturn the court's decision by defining marriage as "between a man and a woman", a ballot measure that reiterates the subclassification of marriage must be passed. Since the term 'marriage' is the center of conflict, ( that's why the term,legal partnership, is considered unfair and for second-rated citizens) why can't we not just adhere to two specific classifications: Sacramental marriage ( define as a church scrament to symbolize the unity of a man and a woman as into one body.), Ceremonial marriage ( a ceremony performed by any licensed or authorized officials, other than the religious leaders. Maghos, the origin of the English term, marriage, which, according to Joseph Shipley, seems likely to come from Greek, Cornish, Lithuanian, etc., means virgin, of either sex.
2) Non-nominal Christians to just consider same-sex marriage as a sign of the end-times. If same-sex marriage is unstoppable, we should consider it as a motivation to stengthen our faith for the end time is near. Rather than wavering our faith, we should bridle our eyes and look up for that glorious appearing. There are things that are beyond our control, but it is part of God's plan. Having such marriage is a force to test our faith. Having such marriage is a test that will determine who are the "Jezebels" among us, most especially, among the religious leaders.

Following the thoughts of Theodore Mills (The Sociology of Small Groups, 1967:108) same-sex marriage has disrupted the existing structure of emotional and normative relations. The affected are the traditionalists and the non-nominal Christians; the goal-seekers are the pro same-sex marital groups. I just hope that this issue would be resolved very soon.

CHANGES IN FATHER'S ROLE

The images of masculinity has been changing. Asserting father's role, as a case in point, has been increasingly not as rigid as in the past. Gone are those days when men are expected not to be condescending to women. Gone are those days when the epitome of masculinity are the likes of Clint Eastwood and Sylvestre(Rambo)Stallone, men, whose movie roles portray machismo (and others must give-in). More films are now showing men's sensitivity and vulnerability. Today, we see more men who are doing childcare and housework... and to see a picture of men tenderly holding a baby is not a laughing-stock anymore.( Pls. check photo on http://www.snopes.com/photos/military/gebhardt.asp) Instead, other men admire them and women praise them. Matter of fact, the term 'houseband','dad-mom', or 'Mr. Mom' is becoming a common household lingo.

Some of the reasons of this change are the following:

1) Women are equally educated as men and are important players in the labor force. Many wives are becoming very successful in the work place that they even are getting more income than their spouses. More are even becoming heads-of-the-state, nowadays. I can never forget the time when the current Philippine commander-in-chief, Pres. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Filipinos were led by men, even before they got their independence from the U.S. Hence, when Macapagal-Arroyo was confirmed to take over as the president, many Filipinos were not comfortable calling the president's husband as the 'First Gentleman'. People got used to having a 'First Lady' in Malacanang Palace.
2) The socio-economic status (SES)of women and the rising cost of living have allowed many married couples to decide, who is to stay with the children. Obviously, the one who takes less dough has to stay home.
3) The changing pattern of family, i.e. same-sex intimacy and legality, has been incresingly common, nowadays. (In fact, effective tomorrow, June 15, the state of California can legally issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.) Whoever takes the father's role and the portrayal of such role in the eyes of the children, adopted or not, are of my keen interest as a researcher.
4) Another reason, which I am part of it, is due to a necessity.

My case was quite unique. I have to do the woman's job, because I have to save the life of a 4-month old boy. I was newly engaged that time when an outbreak of a cholera epidemic, in a tribal village where I worked, occured. Knowing that the baby would be killed by the uncles (and buried with the mom) the following day, I have to step in to save him. It was a difficult decision. My village role became confusing, not only to the villagers, but also to me. My role as a missionary-teacher and a researcher overlapped with my role to keep the baby alive in this remote village, where canned milk was scarcely available. I faced jeers and sneers from the tribesmen. However, I persevered. I walked my talk. I educated the whole tribe, even those from far away hamlets, by showing them how to nourish a malnourished baby, without the mother's milk. A couple of months later, I saw lots of changes to the villagers belief and practices. Men started helping their wives in bathing their kids and even picking leafy vegetables in the wild. My new role, and a monicker, as a jungle dad-mom was accepted and praised by almost everybody. God allowed me to save this 4-month old baby boy, to let the husbands realize that mutual cooperation, and not a clear-cut division of labor among spouses, is much more healthier and happier to raise a family. (Note: You can read more of my life with the Ata Manobo tribe in southern Philippines, including the saving of the baby, in my book, KOILAWAN.)

So, for all of us, dad, houseband, dad-mom, Mr. Mom, or whatever... HAPPY FATHER'S DAY.

A QUATERN ABOUT AN ELUSIVE PEACE

Hi guys,

My good Swede friend, Peter, sent this clip to me two days ago. Please check it out.



Here's a quatern for you. It is one of the poems included in my upcoming book, 150+1 Poems on THE EXPERIMENTAL DASANG (Hey Poem) and 45 OTHER POETRY FORMS: An Anthology. (Note: Quatern is a French poetry form composed of 4 quatrains (4-line verses). It's unique feature is the repetition of the first line of the first quatrain in all succeeding verses.)

PEACE, WHY ARE YOU SO ELUSIVE?

Peace, why are you so elusive?
Like a bird chirping melody
Yet so far to hear you clearly
And translate your notes correctly.

We love to give you sweet embrace
Peace, why are you so elusive?
You flap your wings; you exude grace
White plumes flaunt to attract and tease.

We think of you day in and out
Hope olive branch is dropped en route.
Peace, why are you so elusive?
Guileless victims now in a clout.

Everyone's dreaming to hold you
Hoping never to let you go
Alas! we wake up without you.
Peace, why are you so elusive?

(c)2007 edmund melig industan

Peace is achievable, but it is so sad that, obviously, it is difficult for mankind to achieve. Why? Is it because...
1) People, since time immemorial, love conflict? The Biblical Cain, out of jealousy, ended up killing his twin sibling, Abel.
2) People are so competitive? Generally, we want to outdo and outsmart others. We are like a snake who crawls cleverly to hiss and snap at somebody, then, slithers quietly away as if it hasn't done anything wrong.
3) People, as economic men, are so greedy that we will resort to staging a war to maximize our benefits of the scarce resources at the expense of others? Along the way, we victimize the innocents. While functional theorists see society as interdependent and consensual, conflict theorists see society in the arena of war, fighting for power.
4) People are coward to accept their weakness, that we use conflict as a defense mechanism?
5) It is the end time? (Matthew 24:1-14; Mark 13:5-11)
6) The aging world is so rotten that it has to be crushed and ruined completely for a new world to come and evolve? ( Revelation 21:1-5)

Let me hear from you, my friend. SHALOM! And I mean it from the bottom of my heart. Or maybe man's heart is bottomless? We communicate peace, but actually, it is just at the surface to cover our wickedness.

Sen Hillary Clinton: A Boon to the Democratic Party

Finally, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has delivered her all-out support for Sen. Barack Obama. Now, the democrats are on its way to a healing process, and the battle against the Republican is now in full-swing.

In order to have an overwhelming support by all democrat voters, Sen. Obama must decide who will he invite as his vice president. Being an innovator, who is a take-charge and change leader, he should consider Sen. Clinton as his running mate.

Why?

Sen Clinton is a boon to his leadership and to his future administration. Having a woman, who is a strong innovator, although not as radical, as Sen. Obama would be good for the country. Both like to challenge the status quo, love to explore and investigate new possibilities, and are self-motivated. The image of their future administration would be more unified and balance. American people would have the hope that social issue would be treated wholistically since a woman's perspective would be taken into consideration. To top all that, she readily could seek a smart counsel, 24/7, from a man, who can proudly say, "been-there; done-that", and "if I could just turn back the time, I should have done-this!"

Here's a clerihew for Sen. Clinton to help the Democratic Party decide:

Sen. Hillary R. Clinton

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton
Crushed to the bone, but she'd be a boon
Giddiyup, giddiyup...she gallops as the Vice
Got experience and a spouse who's lot of foreign ties.

edmund melig industan (june 2008)

The Politics of Sen. Barack Obama & The Technology Diffusion Theory

Now that Sen. Barack Obama has garnered the required number of Democratic delegates, he soon can be the official candidate to go against the Republican presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain, in the November U.S. Presidential Election. And it cannot be ignored that Obama's platform of change has catapulted him to the top.

Nevertheless, rather than enjoying the win amongst Democrats, he must now put aside mere rhetoric and start framing up the specifics: What-to (change), How-to,and How-does, based on the American democratic principles. He has to win the confidence of Sen. Hillary Clinton's followers, the undecided, the independents, the Green party members, and even the Republican voters, who are disappointed of the present administration.

Since change has been the message of Sen. Obama, I cannot help but think of the Technology Diffusion Theory, which made an American sociologist and communication scholar, Everett M. Rogers, well-known. The theory categorizes members of a society into five groups. Innovator comprises 2.5% of the population. I always consider the senator as an innovator being a young idealist politician, who preaches change. There's the Early Adopter that takes 13.5% of the population. Early Adopter easily adheres to the innovator's idea out of affinity and respect. There's a big number of Early Majority,34%, who only need a slight peer pressure to gain their confidence. Another 34% of the total population comprises the Late Adopter, those people who are skeptical of the change or innovation. They could be those people, who has difficulty to believe that putting a young, historically first African-American (with some affinal connection to Asian nationals)as a president would do any good to improve the lives of the Americans. The last group that comprises 16% of the population are the Laggards, those people who are either very slow to accept change or just don't want a change at all.

Sen. Barack Obama has to act fast, and of course, at his own time, to make up differences with Sen. Hillary Clinton, so as to unify the bruised democratic party. He has to act fast to work on the specifics of his "change" platform, especially that many democrats are still questioning what those changes might be. If Sen. Obama and his advisers could spell-out these specifics as soon as possible, I absolutely would be sure that he would win even the disgruntled Republicans to his side, and would become the first African-American President of the United States of America. And I hope and pray that, once he becomes the president, he would really stand firmly to his promise and deliver a real good change, not only to the U.S of A. but also to the global society.

Now, here is a clerihew, a 4-line rhymed verse that should be funny and satirical.

Sen. Barack Obama.

Presenting to you, Sen. Barack Obama.
Blah-blah...Endorsed by our beloved, Oprah.
African, Caucasian, Indonesian...well, American!
If he'd win, the face at the oval office would historically change, man!

(Note: This clerihew is included in my upcoming book, 150+1 Poems on THE EXPERIMENTAL DASANG (Hey Poem) and 45 OTHER POETRY FORMS: An Anthology.

An Experimental Hey Poem (Dasang /dah-SANG/)

As promised, I am posting the first experimental Hey Poem on the web and elsewhere. At first, I thought of posting a Hey Poem about McClellan's book; however, I decided to go for this poem on Mr. Poetry Prose.

Since this experimental Hey Poem is an adaptation of the Higa-onon's dasang(dah-SANG), I also would like to post a clip from You Tube of a tribal chieftain performing this speech-song. (Sorry guys, everytime I paste the Dasang clip, an animation is messing up with it. Promise, I'll try to post the dasang clip next time.)

Hope you'll appreciate the beauty and the art of the Higa-onon tribe of southern Philippines as adapted in the English poetry form.

Please enjoy!


TO YOU, MR. POETRY PROSE
(c)edmund industan 2007

Twenty-four seven, I am sharing my soul.
Daytime, I lay in some anatomy class
Naked to my minutest part! Students
Checking my innards to learn my craft.

At nightime, I wanted to be laid,
But very few invite me to bed.
Most prefer to be embraced by a silk
Not by a wool or a crocheted sheet.

So, at ten, I wear shades in the dark.
The night owls are dancing their hearts out.
'Though I'm not sure if they could hear my words
They added jolts and croons to my chords.

But hey!
I am awake! I am doing my part!
Hey!
I entertain until they are out.
Hey!
I stir the minds of the academe
But, I would love to be in someone's dream.

It's true, Poetry Prose, I'm in discontent.
I would love to expand and evolve...
Be active, out in the street...
Not passively awake in the shelves.

I'm glad you tried to adapt the form
Of Meticulous Prose! But, sure, not enough!
Convince me, P.P., I'm still an old Thomas...
Structure isn't enough to win the reader's heart.

You think you're better off than those on a diet?
They restrict too much to come up with a skinny form.
Ended up emaciated...light as a cotton ball!
People can't make a sense of the dress they don.

But hey!
It is not late! We still have the time.
Hey!
Let's associate; let us check the street.
Hey!
Let's check the world how they pace their time.
And evolve! Need to grow along with the time.

So Hey!
As mother hen, I am clacking for one,
'Come to my bosom and learn evolution.
There is a change to benefit the world
Not a change to be self-contained.'

Yes, we are a spook of the culture and not...
A hermit! We can't survive on our own.
We have to adapt on what other's need;
So that our art can help us better the world.

(Note: This hey poem is included in my upcoming book, "150+1 Poems...:An Anthology")