Fudging with the Facts
An article in the Chippewa Herald by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism suggests, that inmates in solitary confinement have been reassessed to make their mental health statuses less relational to the harm of solitary confinement on those with mental illnesses. This apparently comes after Governor Walker proposed changes to how inmates with mental illnesses are treated physically, psychologically, pharmacologically, etc. In this regard, a memo was released asking professionals in the DOC realm to reassess inmates pertaining to mental health statuses and levels of functioning related to their level of confinement.
In an era where mental health is gaining support for services in the consciousness of the general population. Having a Governor and a State department to feel the need to reassess inmates to fudge with the statistics behind funding and operational success of incarceration institutions is mind boggling. The governor is in the midst of attempting to make himself look good in the face of another re-election campaign. A failed presidential campaign where he boasted the budgetary restrictions he has already forced on limited resources in Wisconsin should provide some indication of his potential to successfully continue to govern our great state.
Any recent attempt to overhaul the incarceration rate of Wisconsinites has failed due to policy makers and state legislative bodies. Having never visited a prison in his time as Governor, how effective does he expect to be in creating real changes in a department he doesn’t seem to care enough about, nevermind how many potential voters are being lost in the ever increasing maze of minor infractions, mandatory minimum sentences, and social consciousness wars where taxpayer monies are wastes in awareness campaigns.
Read the referenced article at this link: http://m.chippewa.com/wisconsin-prison-officials-quietly-changed-mental-health-status-of-inmates/article_39c22536-62de-5357-94eb-f3e65ae79423.html
Disturbing the Peace
When I was an undergrad at UWGB, writer Chris Abani came and spoke about writing dangerously and talked about his life and the inspirations he found in reading James Baldwin. Abani had been an activist in Nigeria where the gov’t had put a bounty on his life.
Abani and Baldwin inspired me to write dangerously and honestly. It is in hearing about what others have experienced that we discover that our experiences are not so uniquely isolating.
Having moved away from a sense of victimhood over the last year in my head and in my writing, I still try to write honestly with an overall positive vibe. This can be seen in my sidewalk poem and my piece Life is Poetry as well as pieces I am currently cultivating in my head.
Aside from my written endeavors, recently I was presented with a wonderful gift that I decided to take. I was given the opportunity to force myself to pursue printing larger prints of my photos. With the purchase of my new camera in November, I had never printed anything larger than a 16×20 in the number of years I have pursued photography. Printing out a 20×30 of a sunrise scene turned out amazingly. I actually do not want to part with it. My apartment is a collection of empty photo frames waiting for the perfection that will never come about. I’d like to get into the habit of publishing, printing, submitting, and selling my photos and now that I know that I can print larger scale prints without reducing quality, I am ready. On Instagram, the Wisconsin State Journal seems to appreciate my photography skills. Look out State Fair Competitors!
Wisconsinites Paying For It.
Fact: Governor Walker has not visited a prison since he was elected in 2011. That is a jaw-dropping fact! Not even bothering to visit one of the many juvenile detention centers. As a past prior presidential candidate, this is deeply concerning especially when Wisconsin has a rather high number of incarcerated individuals and a disproportionate number of minority inmates, combined with large budget that surpasses other nearby states. Nationally, only eleven other states spend more per resident than Wisconsin on corrections. And with more mandatory minimum laws being passed, the prison population is guaranteed to grow rather than shrink.
With the DOC asking for more and more funding to be able to provide critical mental health services to inmates, Wisconsinites need to surpass their love of awareness campaigns and push for some real structure and oversight. Who audits the state or the governor’s office? Let’s push Walker to set foot in a prison or juvenile detention centers and possibly create a mindset that speaks to giving a damn about people that need services and reformed supports and not just becoming a number or a chance for private prisons to collect tax dollars.
“The DOC’s 2017-19 Biennial Budget Request mainly incorporates a cost-to-continue approach for current operations in our institutions and supervision of offenders in the community with some modest investments requested. When all funds are combined, this request increases spending 112.3 million or 4.6% over the current biennial base budget.”
☆I attempted to find a total budget figure rather than a requested amount but was not successful.
Additional reading: Tax dollars are further wasted as the DOC leases”sprawling”pieces of property. http://watchdog.org/292556/treasurer-taxpayers-lease/
Everyday Rituals & Realistic Goals
Every day since February 1st, I’ve written my weight and my daily struggles down on a post-it note for keeping track of my 90 day fitness challenge. I keep them in a jar on top of my fridge next to another jar that keeps track of my overall goals for the year.
With less than 30 days before my deadline, before my May 4th half birthday; it demonstrates my commitment to remain dedicated and disciplined in everything that I strive to accomplish. And that’s not to say that my goal hasn’t needed to change a bit to fit in with reality and my perfectionism. Originally I had planned to get back down to 125 which is clearly not going to be realistic. When I lost 20 pounds after graduate school, I did it slowly and primarily through diet. That means I was able to get down to 125 without much muscle. Granted today I can still comfortably wear my size 29 jeans, there’s no healthy option to get back to 125 again.
Changing topics a bit, I saw recently that Men’s Health Magazine is doing a vote contest for men to grace the cover of their November 2017 issue. For those of you that know me personally and have asked to read ‘Life is Poetry’ you may be able to recognize how perfect of an opportunity that seems to be. However, I’m going to be realistic and instead attack that angle in the way that coincides with my original plan to mark the conclusion of this 90 day fitness challenge. Let’s give them a challenge to feature something other than what their used to featuring.
On the Edges
I attended another writing session put on by The Mill in Appleton at the Library. This session was about fitting writing into your life. I was able to reconnect with a past coworker and develop new connections.
After the session I remembered that in my college notebooks is where I had written on the edges when inspiration struck. I began compiling phrases and excerpts from my various notebooks that I can seemingly string together for my next performance piece. One such excerpt, “they tried to put the God back in me because apparently this is not the body type that fits right.”
I was prompted to talk about finding my voice as a writer and I talked about using brutal honesty. If you have heard previous pieces such as Tough Guys Wear Pink, Gods & Monsters, or Life is Poetry hopefully it creates a reaction and you find something to connect to in the words and descriptions.
On Sunday morning, I woke up early and in a quick decision, drove to Suamico to photograph the sunrise as I knew it would rise from the East. I found a perfect spot in between lakefront homes. After the sun had risen, I then drove to Kaukauna to Thousand Islands Nature Center where I was gifted with the opportunity to shoot some geese very close up with my beer can lens. Below are photos from Sunday.
Solitary Confinement Reform and Awareness.
Our more successful neighboring state of Minnesota (for prison reform) is in the news for seeking out reforms when it comes to solitary confinement.
In our neck of the woods, we are still holding awareness campaigns for people already aware of the issues. Also, our largest supporter of reforms is religious based communities rather than political, social, or departmental (as in DOC). Appleton will be hosting an evening of awareness in the basement of the public library on April 5th put on by ESTHER an the League of Women Voters (Meeting Room A, 6:30pm). Additionally, there will be a solitary confinement exhibit in De Pere beginning April 30th at First United Presbyterian Church in partnership with JOSHUA. Details at this link:
https://m.evensi.us/the-truth-about-solitary-confinement-first-united/204579063
If you are not aware, please attend one of these events to see how we are treating people in prison and the conditions in solitary confinement for people who can be locked away in a small room for 23 or 24 hours a day for weeks, months, years, and decades. How we treat others and how we allow ourselves to turn our backs and remain unaware of the truth that people live on a daily basis in this modern America, shows how we as a country elected our current political majority.
If you are already aware, please come up with ways to make others aware of the issues rather than attending these events alone and creating false numbers of how many individuals this information reaches in the general population.
Living A Balance
Aside from winding up forgetting to eat yesterday, I made the decision to skip the gym and support talented people. I went out to listen to a local Green Bay rock/blues band, ‘Sons of Kong.’ It was the first time being at the Gasoline Bar next to the Mason Street Bridge. An environment of beards and leather and here we are, a group of misfit social service workers. Sons of Kong’s talented drummer is a co-worker/supervisor. It is great to have a talented local band to follow as in the past my family followed Westside Andy and Mel Ford centralized in the Madison area.
You can listen to Sons of Kong from the link below. Also, they are releasing new music on electronic music platforms on April 7th.
https://sonsofkong.bandcamp.com
I stayed after the set to watch my coworkers play pool and attempt trick shots. Occasionally observing a woman who was cut off by the bartender. After I returned home, I submitted a haiku to ‘The American’ magazine before their submission deadline. I had started a new poem on the Senses of Persistence yesterday morning that couldn’t get edited/refined in time for submission. A good friend of mine who we’ve developed a relationship around people and poetry, introduced me to the poetry contest. I’m currently still waiting to hear about another poetry opportunity that my friend directed me to as well.
Missed Connections
I signed up for a writing session on writing more complex characters put on by the Mill for Writers. Meeting in the basement of the Appleton library, descending the stairs and catching a taxidermy bear in the corner of my eye caught me off guard.
A room full of writers and potential writers that come from a variety of occupational backgrounds. I wound up sitting next to a guy one year younger who also works in social services. We seemed to have a lot in common but he appeared more stoic than me with an added displeasure of wanting to talk about himself. A missed connection not catching his last name and a potential friend while his quick exit from the room at the end added to the difficulty.
Provided a challenge to incorporate prompts into character development with a lie from ‘two truths and a lie’ as well as being given a character that has wings. I was challenged with how my character reacts to walking into a room that makes them uncomfortable. The lie was about hot air balloons which fit with wings. Below are my two examples.In the honesty of the situation, the guy to my left was the youngest person there at age 31, most attendees were in their 50’s and up. I thought about how many of them had some type of social media outlet for their work or have any clue about marketing themselves or their work. And maybe that’s a class worth having. I enjoyed the session and wlaked away with some really great ways to build more complex characters through the use of psychology (I majored in psychology). I signed up for the next writing session because it puts my writing in the forefront of my priorities outside of work. I have a 50K word rough draft that I’ve sat on for a few years that is too much ‘tell’ and not enough ‘show’ and it’s been a struggle to develop.the personality of one of my prime characters that is so wrapped up in the entirety of the story. In all reality he is just a name and a photo in my head.
Exercise excerpts:
“Nathan didn’t think much of the small town living he’d seemingly to him, ‘endured.’ As an outcast on the world due to being born with wings, he had settled with himself to remain a private person. Although, secretly he yearned for some other worldly existence in this modern mass of the ordinary. Remaining secretive of his winged evolutionary lottery win, he turned to hot air balloons to seek his high flying adventures.”
“Nathan walked into the hot air balloon facility on a cloudy and windy Saturday, knowing that the tourists would be scarce due to the high winds and cloud cover. Opening the door, he was met with a burst of movement, raucous noise, and bodies everywhere. The change in expectation and scenery left him defeated. He creeper along the edge of the room like a rodent, trying to avoid as much contact as possible making his way to the balloon storage area. He reach the room where his balloon was stored, looking through the room window and hungry for a piece of quiet solitude.”