Take Your Kids to Work and Stun Them With a Stun-Gun Day!

Oh, the Florida Department of Corrections. This story is so indicative of your problems, and the problems throughout corrections departments all over the country. At three (3!) separate prisons a total of 43 children (!) were stunned by stun guns during take your kids to work day. A large number of the children were indirectly shocked by linking hands together, with one of the children holding the hand of someone who was directly shocked.

Non of the children were seriously hurt, luckily. All of the children were relatives of prison officials and all had permission from parents or grandparents to get shocked.

All of this is pretty insignificant compared to the more serious issues of brutality, corruption, and secrecy infecting the prison industrial complex. Many of these prisons become the major economic force of small, rural towns and many members of single families end up working within the prison in some capacity. This can create an insulated community so wrapped up in perverse power dynamics that right and wrong are born from a pretty dark place. The fact that parents and prison officials thought it would be ok to shock children, some as young as 5(!), to me, fits right in with what I know about and have seen in action regarding the prison system and its employees.

Of course, the fault, ultimately, doesn't lie with the individuals but rather the system that sends a steady stream of offenders into cages where there every infraction, no matter how minor, is met with anger, violence, aggression and intimidation. It is, perhaps, no surprise that those very employees would see little problem with turning some of these violent tactics on their own, even for "fun"