Thoughts of an Inmate

• Author: Alex Calderone
• DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096732
• Published date: 01 May 2022
• Date: 01 May 2022

https://doi.org/10.1177/10439862221096732

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

2022, Vol. 38(2) 239 –242

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/10439862221096732

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Essay

Thoughts of an Inmate

Alex Calderone

I listen to the news and I hear all that is going on throughout this country, but more, I

feel the pain.

There is a deadly virus shaking the very foundations of society, effectively ending

our world as we know it. By definition, our world has ended. There is a world that was

prior to COVID-19, and a world that exists after. The financial aspects of societies all

throughout the globe have changed, as has changed our health concerns, our trust on

health officials, our confidence in world leaders, our views on the fragility of human

life, and of course, our definition of the value of human closeness: the value of a hug.

As this COVID-19 shakes the fabrics of society, we can easily see the flaws within

the stitching at the seams. We see that societies all throughout the planet have been

built on the back of the poor, the underprivileged, the uneducated, the minorities, the

unimportant and dispensable women and men.

As this world-changing pandemic continues, it also becomes obvious that these

dispensable women and men are also vulnerable. They have been born and raised in

communities, in homes, in Houses of Cards where the cards have been unfairly stacked

against them–the softest winds come by and the whole thing can come crashing down.

We have strong and proud household and community leaders who proudly pro-

claim we are okay and doing fine. But the truth is that even if we are okay and doing

fine, we are in those conditions despite the odds against us. However, COVID-19 is

not a statistics analyst, it is not a politician, not a community leader, not anyone who

would like to pretend we are okay. No, COVID-19 does not care what we would like

to think and so it is showing us exactly where society went wrong, where society is

still going wrong.

COVID-19 has affected minorities and people of color in ways that are tangibly

different than the ways it has affected other populations. Of course, not only the health

aspects of COVID-19 are different; the financial fallout will also be different consider-

ing that, on average, minorities have less savings, less education, less job security, less

access to personal financial support networks, less housing security, less income per

household and even per person...less, less, less.

Social inequality has become rather obvious in the past few months, but the truth is

that this inequality has been in the fabric of society for years, decades, centuries. As an

inmate, I have had the opportunity to personally witness some other social discrepan-

cies that plagues this nation.

1096732CCJXXX10.1177/10439862221096732Journal of Contemporary Criminal JusticeCalderone

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