It’s Been Going on for a Long Time

• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Author: Richa
• Date: 01 May 2022
• DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096737

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221096737

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2022, Vol. 38(2) 228 –231

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096737

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Essay

It’s Been Going on for

a Long Time

Richa

What follows happened a long time ago, but some things, in their essence, don’t

change.

My first incarceration, age 18, was for the “crime” of crossing a street between

intersections. I was almost certainly targeted because of my beard and long hair -

unusual at the time. The judge muttered a derogatory comment about my looks before

declaring a $25 fine, then sentenced me to five days in the Hennepin County

(Minnesota) Workhouse when I declined to pay the fine.

Told at the workhouse that I would have to “work” as well as shave, and unwilling

to do either, they put me in solitary confinement. Given a thin pair of pants, a T-shirt,

and a thin pair of socks, they opened a window right across from the cell. The tempera-

ture that week was typically in the double digits below zero. Meals were two slices of

white bread and a glass of water twice a day, except a “full” meal on the third day. I

only got that after reminding them that a full meal at least every three days was required

by law. Not that such knowledge really helped me - the meal was so bad that I was

nauseated after eating about half of it.

Nobody ever beat me or otherwise physically molested me throughout this process.

But the whole thing felt violent to me. Upon release I took out my anger by purposely

committing the same “crime” several times on the walk back to my apartment.

I experienced greater violence during a two-year incarceration for, ironically, a

crime of overt nonviolence - refusal to participate in the mass murder our government

was perpetrating at the time in Vietnam. It started the first night when my cellmate in

the Baltimore City Jail raped me. Guards clearly knew what was going on, but did

nothing.

When they transferred me to federal prison they forcefully cut my hair and beard.

They continued to do so for many months until a fast in combination with some out-

side pressure induced them to stop.

After first spending about two weeks in a youth prison they sent me to Lewisburg

Federal Penitentiary, where I did most of my time. They immediately put me in the

“hole”, in fact in one of the two most secure cells in the prison. After a few days there

I wanted to obliterate consciousness and started to beat my head against the wall. But

I managed to stop, and resolved that I would do better.

1096737CCJXXX10.1177/10439862221096737Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeRicha

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