PISS FACTORY

In 1996, the Michigan Department of Corrections implemented an Education Action Plan that increased the amount of teacher/student contact time from 28 to 32 hours per week. Zero input came from the teachers regarding this action. However, one school principal spoke out against this new policy in a memorandum dated November 8, 1995. Here is a portion of what he had written:

Maybe it’s the misguided notion that more contact hours will mean more success, more literacy, more GED’s. I don’t think so. What happens when they speed up the line in a factory? The workers try to keep up, but then they will start making more mistakes, start getting frustrated, and eventually become less productive, and very, very angry. There are limits to what the human body and spirit can do. If this policy is enforced, the teachers will try to do their best, but they too will become frustrated and ultimately less productive. A classroom is not a factory. You cannot chain a prisoner to his desk and force him to get his GED. You must teach him, you must lead him from the point you find him ever so gently so that he can focus on the knowledge he is acquiring and not on the dismal failures of the past.

When 1996 rolled around, us teachers were stuck in the classroom for an additional 4 hours per week. Luckily, we had our own private bathrooms. But not for long. One teacher, now retired, who once claimed that he could get more respect as a Wal-Mart greeter, raised the issue of having our toilets and sinks removed from our private bathrooms without any accommodations being made. Subsequently, a grievance was filed on behalf of the teachers at our facility, which we easily lost.

In a December 27, 1996, memo addressed to our school principal, the assistant deputy warden for programs wrote the following:

Kindly tell your staff that they are not to leave their classrooms unattended. When there are prisoners in the classrooms, the teachers are to be there to supervise and ensure nothing is taken/destroyed.

So here it is—2006, and nothing has changed. For the past 10 years I’ve avoided drinking liquids during my shift due to not having easy access to a bathroom. I wonder if this contributed to my kidney problems?