![Eagle 3](../../Images/Eagle_3.gif)
![Frontiersman, February 2016](Images/Title.gif) Ma$tering Word$, Not Deed$ Robert H. Outman, Prisoner P-79939
Semantics is the study of word meanings and usages. In California's
penal system, there seems to be little conformity in semantics. Words
are used as a means to an end, political correctness, and political machinations. For example, prison officials call their system the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), promoting and emphasizing the word rehabilitation. To the mind of an average person, this sounds great. The prisons are rehabilitating prisoners. However, if a curious person looks behind the curtain, he will find the words do not
match the deeds. Since approximately 70% of prisoners are recidivists, rehabilitation is almost nonexistent. A return rate of anything over 50% would have to be deemed a failure. Would you buy a product or service
that was advertised as "only 50% are returned"? No consumer with half
a brain would spend good money on a product with such a reputation. Yet, California taxpayers fork out an astounding $14 billion a year to operate
CDCR. Could it be that rehabilitation sounds much better and more productive
than punishment, as a semantic device to patronize the electorate?
Who would want to think his tax dollars were being used to punish old men
to death? So, rehabilitation is used to explain why 70 and 80 year
old men, with a multitude of health and physical problems, unfit for any
meaningful employment, are in fact punished to death or, to be politically
correct, rehabilitated to death.
Semantic devices are ubiquitous. Prisoners are inmates. You will
not find a trusty. They are called clerks, porters, and workers. No one goes to the hole. It's Administrative Segregation, but it's still
a form of punishment upon punishment or, to be politically correct, a rehabilitative
program. A prison cell is your house but it's still a cell.
There are no cell blocks. They are buildings now. Draconian sentences
are longer than at any time in history, but the semantics are softer and
more politically correct. The public is assured that CDCR is doing
a good job, and is a humane place.
Then, there are the guards, or correctional officers, as they prefer. Officer is a title that denotes a professional person, a person
of high standards and trust. An officer would never maliciously mistreat
or abuse a prisoner. An officer would never bully elderly, defenseless
human beings, or leave a pepper sprayed prisoner to die on the concrete floor of a prison cell. An officer would never force a helpless old man into
a cell with a known violent prisoner who would murder the old man. An
officer would never cause a prisoner to suffer needlessly. An officer
would never compromise his ethics to conform with a group of bullying guards.
An officer would set a standard of excellence. Such officers exist,
but they are few and far between. Could it be that officer, instead of guard, is used by the union to present a professional image, and
justify why CDCR correctional officers are the highest paid guards in the
world, and why California is the only state that pays its guards more than
it pays its school teachers?
![Potemkin Villae](Images/Potemkin_village.gif)
Refined verbiage, like a Potemkin Village, can conceal reality for only so
long. The reality is that California operates the most costly prison
system in the nation, yet it holds the highest record for prisoner suicides,
murders, and natural deaths. When hate, indifference, and resentment
are cultivated like a farmer cultivates his crops, there should be no surprise
in such records and in the staggering level of recidivism. Rehabilitation is virtually nonexistent. No statistics are available as to job placement of prisoners who received rehabilitation in prison. No statistics are
available as to parolee unemployment, after release.
When the media are denied access to prisons, allegedly for safety and security, one has to question if this, too, is a semantic device. Ignoring or
palliating the facts does not make them less factual. The electorate has to understand that it's not what the prison officials say. It's what they do. The electorate has to question the wizard and look behind
the curtain.![10x5 Page Background GIF Image](../../Images/10x5_Page_Background.gif) For additional reading, I suggest my article War of
Words, on page 2 of the December 1994 issue, and Milam's Dictionary of Distinctions, Differences, and Other
Odds and Ends, in The Sovereign's Library.
—editor June 2017 | Frontiersman,0c/o 4984 Peach Mountain Drive, Gainesville,
Georgia 30507 http://frontiersman.org.uk/ | Page 1 | |