Exiles in our OwnLland

BLOG INTRO  by:  Margie Waterman

           

            My name is Margie Waterman. For the past twenty years I taught GED classes in a Dade County jail. After reading the class assignment, I looked up the word EXILE. Here are some of the definitions.

            EXILE: banishment, deportation, expatriation,  expulsion, outcast. One who is ejected or expelled.

            It occurred to me that these definitions fit the condition of my inmate students.

            I believe I meet the criteria for this argument based on Aristotle’s concept of logos. “A formal argument based on logic,” as expressed in the article, “Three Ways To Persuade” By John R. Edlund: expertise, good moral character and goodwill.

            Once a person is arrested and confined, they are stripped of their identity and sense of belonging and assigned a number. We EXILE people in our own community and make it very difficult for them to ever re-enter society successfully.

            The Justice system does not offer rehabilitation. That’s a myth. It offers confinement and isolation. Jail is a subculture, a different language is spoken. A different economic system, bartering, is practiced. There are different mores and moral values or lack there-of, both on the part of the confined and their keepers.

            There is no dignity. Inmates are isolated from their families and loved ones. They are not allowed to have physical contact. They are subject to strip searches even if they have done no wrong. They are treated as though they are all the same, sub-human versions of our species, similar to the way concentration camp dwellers or POW’s are looked upon.

            Edward Said, in “Reflections on EXILES” defines EXILE as, “An unhealthy rift forced between a human being and his/her true home.” While I find Said to be an extremist in his views, I believe his definition aptly fits the prison experience.

            This is exactly what happens to an inmate.

            “ A solitude experienced outside the group. Depravations felt at not being accepted by others, the loneliness of EXILE.”

             Everyone in jail is not a criminal. An innocent person can be arrested and charged with a crime, incarcerated, until they either post bail, accept a plea agreement or go to trial. This can take as long as seven years. Many inmates cannot afford to post bail. There is no compensation for those who are later found innocent.

            Those who are deemed guilty serve time, then they are set free. Even a sentence as short as six months can destroy a life. People are released with no support system and no resources. Often they have lost their homes, their children, their jobs, their mates and their friends, they are shunned. EXILED.

            “The pathos of EXILE is in the loss of contact with the solidarity and the satisfaction of earth: homecoming is out of the question.” (Said)

            While in jail people become better criminals in order to survive. There is little trust or camaraderie. Inmates are angry. They see the hypocrisy of the legal system. How likely are they to return to honest productive lifestyles?

            “EXILES look at non-EXILES with resentment.” (Said)

            I found many inmates to be decent people who had the potential to become good citizens, but not the where-with-all. Society doesn’t allow it. The barriers that must be overcome in order to restore one’s life are monumental. Very few are strong enough to accomplish this feat. They have become EXILES in their own land.

            It occurs to me that the EXILE is an archetype. A recurrent symbol of the human condition. There exist a continuum of EXILE-ISM. Everyone experiences abandonment, betrayal, and rejection in life. It’s a matter of degree. Babies are left on doorsteps, the elderly are EXILED to nursing homes, the poor banished to homeless shelters, the disabled ejected to group homes.  We stereotype and accept or reject one another based on age, sex, race, religion, socio-economic status, political beliefs and more. Families and friends EXILE the black sheep , the nerd, and the wall flower.

            Joseph Brodsky expresses this perspective in his article, “On Grief and Reason” when he says, ”Displacement and misplacement are this century’s commonplace, an EXILE is constantly fighting and conspiring to restore his significance.”

            Until we realize that we are all connected, all part of one human race, we will continue to experience the EXILE condition.