In Between the Sword and the Pen

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Troy Brownlow
• DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096724

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221096724

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2022, Vol. 38(2) 200 –203

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096724

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Essay

In Between the Sword and

the Pen

Troy Brownlow

Colorado

Sometimes words are not enough to capture the rote menace of a particular circum-

stance. This is how I feel about certain aspects of my own incarceration. From my

perspective I have yet to meet any individual in prison who didn’t harvest what they

manifested through the process of cause and effect. This universal phenomena rarely

drives an exception yet there are occasions in prison that go well beyond the rational

limits of sufficiency. For myself I see today’s prison milieu through the lens of my own

existential experiences inside of a Correctional system where the societal expectations

for retribution and rehabilitation are often murky and capricious. In the context of

violence and its nexus to our prisons, violence at its etiological core has historically

been, and to a larger degree still is, society’s ultimate arbitrator of justice. Don’t see

the valence, think ‘death penalty’!

One of the curious traits of violence, especially in a prison setting, is that it can

materialize in a broad spectrum of constituencies. During the past 16 years I have seen

everything from some tense verbal jousting between several of my peers and prison

staff to a full fledged brawl that erupted out of nowhere right in the middle of an intra-

mural league basketball game. Several years ago I witnessed an older, effeminate man

who, tired of being constantly bullied, took a metal mop wringer and nearly beat to

death one of his more ardent tormentors. Then, there was the time when a Tower

Guard shot two inmates, one of them fatally, who were fighting with each other out in

the exercise yard. Whether it’s at the State’s behest or an individual’s, violence as a

means to an end permeates our culture in degrees and justifications regardless of

whether its inside of these walls or out.

Then there is the matter of how we treat the effects of empirical violence. In society

when there is an incidence of violence, whether it’s at a school or someone’s work-

place, individuals who witness or survive the encounter are typically interviewed and

then sent on their way. Afterwards they are then given the opportunity to meet with

Mental Health Care Counselors who can then help them process their thoughts and

feelings. Witness something brutal in prison and you’ll be locked down in your cell for

a few days, weeks or even months if it’s really bad. I work as a Mental Health Peer

Counselor in our State’s largest prison complex so I see numerous clients who after

years of witnessing varying degrees of violence develop cases of acute chronic/

1096724CCJXXX10.1177/10439862221096724Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeBrownlow

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