Bryant Arroyo is a jailhouse lawyer, environmental activist and outspoken advocate for aging and elderly prisoners. He was a rank-and-file union worker before his unjust incarceration in 1994 and he repeatedly exposes the corporate interests which profit off the prison-industrial complex. Arroyo successfully organized prisoners and neighboring community members to shut down a toxic coal gasification plant and helped win the release of fellow prisoners suffering from major health issues. He advocates for the rights of disabled and mentally ill prisoners. 

A regular contributor to Workers World newspaper, Arroyo has faced severe repression for writing about the capitalist machinery of the prison system. To the great chagrin of prison authorities, he also exposes the individuals within the “corrections” industry who operate that machinery. He is a tireless crusader for the right of all prisoners to free speech, which has often led him to put his body and mind on the line to protest censorship of this newspaper.

Arroyo is currently incarcerated at SCI Coal Township, where he is serving a life sentence for a crime he did not commit. (Teddie Kelly)

America, America, land of the free. The society filled with justice and equality. This is a clear example of hypocrisy, unless they forgot to include me and millions of others kept in captivity. Confined behind tall walls and razor wires, with the nation of prisoners constantly rising higher. Most of us will never be released – except in a body bag, once deceased.

Most inmates have done their wrong, but guidelines designed to hold prisoners are much too long. America’s prison in America has become the number one prison industry. Where men and women are stocked as a commodity, and actually forced to work for a paltry sum under servitude for free. Refusal and being without pay and thrown into the hole, along with a definite denial of parole.

Since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, minorities have been swallowed by incarceration. It’s easy to see the similarities between prison life and slavery. Inside these walls, phone rates and commissary prices are still high, because financial support comes from Securus, Global Tel Link, Aramark food service and Smart Communications, too. As far as these corporate raiders, that’s just a few. Inmates are forced to make prisoners’ clothes, bed linens, bras, panties, boxers, T-shirts, socks, boots, hats, and coats, too. 

It’s a shame many tax-paying citizens don’t know. We are in an era of the new Jim Crow. There’s no justice or equality. America was built from slavery. Don’t take my word for it; study your history. Three, two, one. Racist lawmakers and politicians make decisions causing Blacks, Latinx, de facto whites, and poor whites to fill the prisons. Outsiders believe we are being rehabilitated. But being caged only generates hatred.

The majority of defendants are victimized and doomed way before entering the courtroom. The vocabulary and legal terminology used leave most inmates confused. And often the attorney who’s allegedly protecting your constitutional rights, is secretly drinking martinis with the DAs and judges. Quick to offer some type of plea deal or make you wait many years for an appeal. 

Court officials share a bond of which we’re not part, stacking the odds against you from the very start, just like slave masters by selling slaves, working them till they’re dead in their graves. So at times it seriously baffles me why America is called the Land of the Free, especially when the United States of America is warehousing the largest nation of prisoners in the country.

For Prison Radio, by Bryant Arroyo, CU1126, at SCI Coal Township, inside the nation of prisons.

This commentary was recorded by Prison Radio.