I don’t think we spend a lot of time talking about how messed up the carceral state in the USA, but let’s take a look at it while I explain to you why R. Kelly is now in solitary after getting his ass beat for something that’s entirely out of his hands. Jagoff comedian and political commentator Jimmy Dore once said that the only people who become cops were either bullied in high school or bullies in high school, and you can see that playing out among prison guards as well.
Here’s what the New York Post’s Page Six said about why one of R. Kelly’s fellow inmates gave Kelly the beat down that sent him into solitary for his own protection, from Kelly’s attorney.
Sometime Wednesday, a disgruntled inmate, furious over lockdowns caused by Kelly, came into his cell and started attacking him, Greenberg said.
“My understanding is, everytime there is a pro-R. Kelly protest outside of the jail, they lock down the entire facility,” the lawyer said during a brief interview.
“When they do this, inmates don’t get their commissary, they don’t get their shower, stuff like that and since they’re fairly sporadic anyway, they get upset. So they’re penalizing everyone in the facility because people are protesting in support of Kelly.”
There’s no good reason to lock down the prison because there is a protest outside. It’s not a danger to anyone, it’s just annoying to the administration of the prison.
And let’s be real, we can all see how this outcome is exactly what they were hoping was going to happen: since they can’t punish Kelly for the protests, they punish the entire prison, claiming it’s a “safety issue,” then move Kelly to solitary, which is a form of torture, again claiming it’s because of “safety” when someone snaps and attacks Kelly, which, again, was always the plan.
This is what people mean when they talk about the need for prison reform.
Prisons are not nice places,
Prisons are what we want them to be, and in some countries they’re administered more humanely and that approach can produce better results and less crime. Being “tough on crime” doesn’t necessarily lead to less crime or a safer society.