“Why Do We Do It?”

A Peer Educator’s Perspective on Promoting Positive Change in a Negative Environment. It’s a question my co-workers and I get every day. Why? We work 10 to 12 hours a day, often seven days a week … It seems like we get veiled contempt from certain staff and even a few of our fellow inmates…We are constantly confronted with obstacles and negativity. Why do we do it? The answer is simple … These circumstances that appear to be unpleasant to others are the very challenges that we believe make our jobs necessary. Nothing is ever what it seems until you experience it firsthand, and working in prison as a peer mentor and educator is a unique experience, to say the least. Sometimes what appear to be challenges are actually opportunities.

First, the staff … There are about 30 to 50 staff working on our yard. As peer educators we interact with all of them. Do we run into ones that hinder our mission? No. When a staff member prevents us from doing something related to our work we always have a supervisor to explain the circumstances to. This person listens to both sides of the issue then makes a fair decision. Since all we do is positive work with no measurable impact to security, we usually continue with whatever we were doing with little or no resistance. Maybe a few adjustments, but nothing that takes away from the overall goals we were trying to reach. It’s all about effective communication, mutual respect and above all…patience. After all, it’s a prison, not a summer camp. We inmates have all done something to get here, and the staff has a job to do. Once you get these facts out in the open, it’s easy to come up with creative solutions that satisfy everybody involved. Here at our prison, ASPC Eyman – Meadows Unit, we peer educators are fortunate to work with prison staff who respect and support our mission. The staff hierarchy in the Arizona Prison structure is a bit hard for a layman to grasp at first, but essentially the ranking order from the top down on a prison yard is: Deputy Warden, Assistant (Associate) Deputy Warden, and COIV’s (usually two of them). Here on Meadows Unit we have our Deputy Warden Curran, COIV Cottrell, and COIV Savinen. All three of these top administrators here support the peer educator program, so our mission not only moves forward, but also enjoys the help and resources it needs to function. It’s rare to find a group of administrators who are so polite, helpful, yet still focused on their own responsibilities and priorities. Below these top administrators are Captains, Lieutenants, Sergeants, COllI’s (Counselors), and the COII’s (regular uniformed staff). Most of these people are aware of the work we do; most of them are helpful and polite. There are a few, though, that don’t seem to like us very much. I asked about a few of the “Iess-than-pleasant” ones and learned some interesting facts. One had been stabbed by an inmate, one had feces thrown on him, and it turned out that another one had started out quite friendly, but he’d been used and lied to by several inmates and almost got fired. It’s hard for me to think of me reacting any different if it’d been me. A reader might find this description a little flowery or even a bit loquacious. Some may accuse me of trying to garner favor by writing it down. The truth is what I’m conveying. Truth is the only tool that a convicted felon can use to achieve positive goals in this type of environment … and the truth is that we inmates tend to be our own worst enemies when it comes to our quality of life behind bars.

Which brings me to my fellow inmates…There are about 1150 of them here at Meadows Unit. Of that number, nearly 1000 of them have unresolved drug and alcohol issues, gang affiliations, or other problems related to criminal thinking. Despite these facts, you would be amazed at how many of these men are full of other great qualities. I’ve seen a guy who earns 10 dollars per week give his last bar of soap to a new guy who arrived here with nothing. I’ve watched guys who earn less donate money to a Thanksgiving Day Food Drive for nothing in return. I’ve even seen these guys pull together to help their fellow inmates when they are ill, injured, or emotionally distraught. They do these things despite their own circumstances. The truth is that anybody can come to prison. The decisions that we make in life ultimately determine what our lives will become. There are many people living their lives out there who have made poor decisions…decisions that may have brought them to a place like Meadows Unit had their actions been identified by authorities. Many staff I get to know acknowledge this fact. Usually a person has to make bad choices over a period of time to end up in prison, and most of the time the punishment is justified. This does not mean, however that a person is unredeemable. Just because a person goes to prison it doesn’t mean his or her life is over. Many famous people have spent significant time in prisons and come out to live better lives than before they went there. It’s all about what one does inside to prepare themselves for their new lives. Everybody can change, grow, and move forward from bad decisions, addictions, and self-destructive behavior.

The job of being a mentor or educator is about first fixing yourself, then helping others do the same. It all starts internally, and that’s the answer to the question…”Why Do We Do It”

We don’t do it to be popular, garner favors, get attention, or get over on the system. We do it so that our own lives are in order and we can look in the mirror and like what we see. Removing the blinders of selfishness and reaching out to others is the cement that forms the foundation of a rebuilt life.

By Joseph Chiappetta Jr.