The environment in minimum security was really different. There were trees, picnic tables, and barbeque grills in the yard for family visits. Work crews left the facility every morning to renovate old buildings, landscape town parks, or assist in special needs hospitals. This work differed from making license plates and cleaning cell-block walls. There was more interaction between guards and prisoners, while barriers such as racial, geographical, age, etc., evaporated slowly and allowed communication to flow amongst peers. It was a significant change from the prisons at Walpole, Concord, and Norfolk, where I had spent the previous 13 years.
Days, weeks, months went by, until???a new arrival impacted the setting and disturbed the serenity. A person was transferred from another prison and within moments, panic and mayhem touched every corner of the place. The man had AIDS! Nobody wanted to talk to him, room with him, or sit with him at the dining table. He was ostracized immediately and subjected to a status worse than police informants and child molesters. His race, background, or criminal history didn???t matter. People acted as if he did not exist and avoided even direct eye contact as much as possible. Within days, he felt uncomfortable enough to transfer to another placement.
I don???t remember his name or any particular physical characteristics. I don???t know how he contracted the virus or his sexual preference. I don???t know why he was in prison or the amount of years he had to serve. What I do know is that he didn???t deserve such treatment by me, and I regret my behavior during this period in his life, when he probably needed an embrace instead of rejection. This writer wasn???t capable of being the enlightened person he promoted himself as and actually deprived another human being of an opportunity to receive loving kindness.
Similar incidents had occurred in Massachusetts prisons and jails, as well as facilities throughout the United States, by the mid-eighties. In an effort to allay fears and dispel rumors, prison activists organized educational workshops to identify contaminated body fluids and risky behaviors, which could lead to HIV infection. The curriculum has expanded in recent years to include immune system, sexually-transmitted infections, opportunistic infections, tuberculosis, and hepatitis. Over a thousand human beings participate in the basic workshops annually and are encouraged to pursue the peer-education training cycle, which qualifies one to teach the curriculum to other prisoners.
The primary reason for becoming a peer-educator, for me, was to make amends for my wrong-doing towards that gentleman (and others) over several decades. Such ignorance prompted reaction to fear, and I needed to listen and learn, and then teach, to avoid repetitive negative behavior. Another influential factor was the request for assistance from family members and friends and wanting to be equipped to provide appropriate help. The prison population has steadily increased with HIV-positive and hepatitis-infected men and women. By joining with the old-timers, the prisoners who created this mechanism to teach about risk reduction, I simply followed in their footsteps. Each one teach one!
Published on www.edgeboston.com on 01-17-05
Arnie King writes from a Massachusetts prison cell, which he has occupied for 33 years. A petition for commutation of his sentence, with favorable recommendations, awaits Governor Romney's approval. Arnie can be reached at: throughbarbedwire@yahoo.comor by mail c/o Bay State Center, Box 73, Norfolk, MA 02056.
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