Let ’em eat cake

Or at least Twinkies and Zingers

Friday, May 4, 2012

— THERE ARE those among us-and they’re a loud bunch-who think prisons and jails are much too easy on the guests of the state who reside there, that the Big House should serve bread and water at each meal. And only bread and water. That prisoners should be kept busy making little rocks out of big ones, and any who show promise should be cured of it by just shoveling asphalt onto roads day after monotonous day. The hotter the day, the better. Bring back the chain gang! Or just put ’em all on an island and give ’em seeds. That’ll larn ’em.

You can hear this kind of talk at any coffee shop. Or even around the family breakfast table. N.B. Those saying such things don’t usually work in the prison system. Those folks know better.

On the capital-I Inside, the warders have a much sounder grasp of the realities. You’d have good reason to worry about a father or daughter working there if the inmates were just locked up and continually poked with sticks. Better to keep our guests safe and calm-and occupied in constructive pursuits. Like getting their GED or maybe even a bachelor’s degree. No, not all of them will become model citizens on release, but at least they can learn an honest trade. Or would that be too constructive a prison policy?

One way for guards and administrators to keep everybody calm and safe, and on the road to eventual freedom, and even to responsibility in the Freeworld is to provide some incentives. Like getting to watch TV in the day room, or access to the prison commissary. Just be sure to revoke those privileges-and they are privileges-when they’re abused.

You want to tear up your pillow and throw your dinner on the floor? Then there’ll be no Twinkies and Zingers for you at the commissary-not to mention Cokes and gum.

Benton County’s sheriff, Keith Ferguson, has got the right idea. He and the quorum court have finally decided to attach a commissary to the county jail.

“I’ve had the commissary broughtup to me at every sheriff’s convention I’ve gone to over the past nine years,” says the sheriff. “People have been coming up to me, telling me how great it is, how it brings revenue into the jail and it’s also a tool to help with inmate discipline.”

Still, he’s put off action on the idea for years. Why? Because he wanted a “tough” jail. Cold meals. Few amenities. But having a better jail beats having a tough one. They’ve known as much in Washington County for a while now. The jail there has had a commissary since the new detention center was opened in 2005.

“It’s the best management tool we have,” says Major Randall Denzer of Washington County’s detention center. “For the inmates, they know if you don’t act right, if you don’t follow the rules, you get cut off. Your commissary privileges are revoked. And it is a privilege.” NATURALLY enough, sensibly enough, those putting together the commissary in Benton County’s jail visited the Washington County detention center for pointers.This isn’t grade school. You’re allowed to copy. And good ideas are worth copying.

Commissary items in jails and prisons almost always include toothpaste and shampoo. Along with greeting cards and pencils. But the most popular items are the goodies. Cookies. Honey buns. Chips. Candy bars. And doubtless those Twinkies and Zingers.

Those running a jail have to be tough. We don’t envy them their jobs. But they have to be smart, too.

Jail isn’t, and shouldn’t be, the easy life. But it can have its small pleasures. We’re civilized here. And one of the surest indexes of the quality of a civilization is how humanely it treats those it has to lock up. There’s no need to deny them the small pleasures of life. Mind you, the small pleasures can be taken away if they don’t act right. Most of us think of ourselves as civilized-but not fools.

Editorial, Pages 14 on 05/04/2012