Winters' Alternative

By Roger Dixon

In the future, just as it is today, the United States faces a major problem with its prison system. It has the highest per capita incarceration rate of any country in the world. To contain costs it tries to pack more and more prisoners into the prisons. For the prisoners with their competing gangs and loyalties this creates a pot waiting to boil over and explode into destructive riots. Is there a way out of this situation? John Winters thinks there is. As an ex-inmate who has gone on to get a PhD he has a better plan. Give the prisoners good training, more space, more autonomy, and total isolation from others on unused government land. They have the choice to work hard and live well or fight the system. This new incarceration has no cells, no administration and no guards. Technology separates it from the rest of the population. Winters’ project does, however, have powerful political and underworld interests who oppose it. Drug cartels and organized crime will stop at nothing and are willing to kill to stop the project. As Winters’ project moves forward we follow the lives of inmates who choose many different paths to living in their new environment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Aug 2, 2022
• ISBN: 9781662920431

Book preview

Chapter 1

10 YEARS LATER

The beeping of John Winters’ smart phone prodded him like a sharp stick. He jerked awake and sat up in bed still groggy and unable to relax. Nervous energy was already beginning to build, and he quickly focused on his single objective –selling his concept of a better prison system to the Congressional subcommittee. If he performed well today, he could bring about radical change. As Director of Special Projects in the Bureau of Prisons’ Administration Division, John had worked for the last four years to lay the necessary foundation.

During this time his division had quietly worked to help modify existing laws and Federal Regulations. Now their effort could come to fruition, if the committee would recommend the funds for his project. This committee had a name only a bureaucrat could love -- the House Intellectual Property and Judicial Administration subcommittee -- but it held John’s future in its hand.

Over the last week his team had role-played as they had tried to anticipate every question and every situation. In addition to the verbal preparation, John had directed his staff to distribute enough facts, figures and narratives to fill a small library. The Congressmen and women had pounds of printed material provided to them, as well as access to the Cloud. However, it was unlikely many of them had even read the synopsis. They would rely heavily on their Aides’ summaries and suggested questions. To make matters worse, they could not admit their ignorance, so the burden was on him to explain simply at first, but in great detail if pressed.

John had not expected formal resistance from the existing bureaucracies. He figured their opposition would be passive and subtle. They would simply attempt to slow things down – ideally to a standstill.

He had expected organized resistance from other groups. It had been largely shadowy and indirect until last night. A man in the Metro had bumped him in the shoulder and, instead of the expected apology, started a short dialogue.

John Winters?

Yes, do I know you?

No, you don’t. You’re talking to the subcommittee tomorrow?

I’m not sure how that concerns you.

A little friendly advice. Your proposal goes through and there’re a lot of people who’d like to see you dead. Clear enough?

Before John could even respond the man slipped away into the crowd. The shock of the moment quickly passed, but in his gut John felt the threat was real.

Unions, prison guards, administrators, organized crime and lawyers all had a vested interested in the current system. Some would oppose him subtlety and some much more directly, like whoever sent the man last night. He had already received e-mails from anonymous senders that casually asked whether this project was worth his life. John took these threats seriously, but it’s never occurred to him to stop working towards his goal. He had discussed the threats with his security team and had taken what he felt were the necessary precautions, however he knew a determined assassin might still get through.

He thought back briefly over the obstacles he had overcome in his life and told himself this was just one more hurdle.

John had joined the Army right out of high school. He had every intention of making it his career. But when the new President abruptly ended all foreign occupations and pulled U.S. troops back within the borders, the U.S. Army quickly shrank. He vividly remembered the day his commanding officer had called him in and let him know, at the early age of twenty-one, his time in the Army was over. He was on the street in a few days with little money and no concept what he wanted to do next. In the civilian job market there was little demand for an anti-tank weapons specialist.

He had a small group of casual friends in the civilian world. One of them offered him a chance to work with her and pick up a little extra cash. Although her description of the job was rather fuzzy, he was desperate for work. It turned out the opportunity involved him driving a get-away car. When everything went badly he ended up being convicted for aiding and abetting a robbery. The leniency/no leniency cycle for first-time offenders, was definitely in a no leniency phase. He was sentenced to prison. The experience there, although unpleasant, had a positive side. Threats and intimidation were a daily part of prison life, and he had learned to handle them. Furthermore the riot he had lived through had given him the real impetus to change the direction of his life.

He brought his thinking back to the present. Nearly 600 men had died in the most recent riot. What was once a three hundred million dollar prison now needed another fifty million to make it secure and usable. Once again the public was shocked, and this time Congress appeared to be ready to consider a better solution. John’s group was ready with a radical, but well thought out proposal. It could bring about real change, but not without serious opposition.

To give the best possible presentation today he needed to know where the pressures to stop him would come from. The members of the committee would certainly be well aware of the objections to Eco-prehension and probably had already been contacted by various lobbies. The members’ questions would try to address as many of these objections as possible to show constituents they were doing their jobs. Who knows, there may even be some committee members who had strong feelings of their own.

John was confident in his statistics, his planning, and the rightness of his goal. He really felt the committee would sense his confidence and he would win out, although not without pain. Winning the committee’s recommendation was a crucial step towards his goal. It did not ensure, however, the program would continue as he planned, and, if the man’s threat were carried out, it might mean John would not live to see the project complete. He knew he needed to build momentum as quickly as possible to minimize the odds stopping him would be a way to stop the program.

In the back of John’s mind he also had to consider how the opposition would attack. They could either go after the proposer or the proposal. Or both.

Given John’s background, he guessed they would start with him. The men and women he was meeting were all politicians, and they learned early in their campaign experience it was much more effective to attack the person than the message. If the person could be thoroughly discredited, the message might never be heard. However, the committee members and their staffs would know there was real danger in this. The over three years John had spent in prison gave him first-hand knowledge of his subject few in government had. The fact he had overcome his criminal record and returned to college to earn his Ph.D. gave him additional credibility. They would probably just probe him. Then, if digging into his background appeared to be counter-productive, they would move on.

John knew all this was part of the testing process. If he did not like it, he could avoid it all by fading into obscurity and still make a living.

With his resolution in place, John slowly rose to start the drama in motion. His security people would be by in a couple of hours to pick him up. Caution was certainly called for. He had time to take a short, brisk walk, while looking frequently over his shoulder, and then grab a shower.

***

As he was toweling himself off, he could not help but look in the mirror and note some of the ravages of time. Although at 32 years old, he still had a full head of dark hair, he could see a few lines in his face and the toll the last four years had taken. Fortunately even with his busy schedule, he had continued his karate training At 6 feet tall and 180 pounds he was also pleased to note he had so far escaped the roll around the middle men seemed to collect. He also took a little time to glance briefly at the two knife scars he had earned in prison. They always served as a reminder prison should forever stay behind him.

Chapter 2

KIMBERLY TANAKA

Kimberly Tanaka roused herself from the fuzzy edges of sleep and was immediately anxious to get up and take on the new day. In some respects today was no different from any other to Kim. She knew the story was there, waiting to be told. And she knew she would be the one to find it. From the moment she had decided to become a journalist, she was sure it would never be just a job. She knew she was destined to find the truth and tell it. From the time she graduated from USC and took her first job with the Los Angeles Times, she had handled endless assignments. Many of these had appeared to be dead ends. But she never lost that hunger or that expectation the story was waiting there just within her reach.

As she swung her legs out of bed and felt the cool air of morning, her mind was already running ahead to what she had planned for the day. As she did nearly every night she had explored the committee meetings in Washington to see how the country’s money was being spent. After leaving the L.A. Times she had worked the last two years as an independent journalist – finding the stories she felt were newsworthy. She had had good luck selling these stories to the wire services, sometimes with her own by-lines. Today she was attending a hearing on a new project within the Bureau of Prisons called Eco-prehension. She had never heard of the term and her reporter’s skepticism told her something was being hidden under a name. She felt a big story was close today, but she had to admit to herself she had had this same feeling many times in the past.

After a quick shower Kim dressed in her professional best and decided to treat herself to breakfast out. From there she would be ready for the thirty minute metro ride to the Rayburn House office building and another chance to dig out the truth.

***

Kim’s confidence, some would call it cockiness, did not happen accidentally. When she was born, her father, Ryoichi Tanaka, was a well-established and extremely successful importer, who had impressive connections both in Japan and in the U.S.A. Although he earned his success by the hard work expected of someone who was Japanese born, he was also somewhat of a maverick. At age twenty eight Tanaka was still living and working in Japan when his firm decided he should marry. It began the subtle, indirect effort that would lead to his union with a Japanese woman from an excellent family. But Tanaka had other ideas. He decided to break tradition and handle both his professional and his personal life on his own. He resigned from his corporation -- an act which shocked his employers, co-workers and family -- and began to lay the groundwork for his future success.

Tanaka knew his fellow countrymen would not easily accept his independence, so he set out for the United States. In five years he had developed a thriving company there and an equally thriving romance with Tina Vasquez.

Tina was a bit of a maverick in her own right. She knew early in life she wanted to get a college degree and become financially independent. Her very traditional Latin family had a difficult time accepting this, and they made it very clear they valued motherhood over a career. Thus Tina and Ryoichi, both rejecting some of the expectations of their own cultures, found much to admire in each other. To both their families’ chagrin they married after knowing each other for less than six months.

Unlike many Japanese men, Ryoichi did not feel a need to father a child on his honeymoon, and Tina was equally interested in waiting until she was established professionally. The heat they took from their families finally ended with Kim’s birth. Although Ryoichi had wanted his first child to be a son, he did not fret over his fate when Kimberly came. He just decided to treat her as he would a son and make her the most successful daughter possible. So from her father Kim learned a strong work ethic and a drive to succeed in a man’s world. Her mother contributed intelligence, the spirit of an iconoclast and beauty. Kim’s face was much like her mother’s with enough of the Japanese influence to give her an exotic appearance. People who liked to categorize had a hard time deciding what her background was. In the cosmopolitan environment of Southern California it was rarely an issue.

It was an issue in Ryoichi Tanaka’s family, however, when Kim decided to go into journalism. As often happens, the drive to succeed drove the child in a direction the parents had never intended for her to go. Once Kim’s mind was made up, however, she never looked back and never doubted her ability to make a mark on the world in her own chosen career. In the back of her mind she had to admit much of her success as an independent reporter still depended on support and encouragement from her father who had backed her in her choice and continued to give her occasional financial contributions.

***

Fortified with this background, Kim strode confidently into the nearly unoccupied hearing room, found a seat and began to down-load and read the materials made available to the attendees.

A glance at the title of the hearing, Criminal Incarceration Reform -- the Eco-prehension Alternative, told her nothing and a quick look in her smart phone’s dictionary app reassured her eco-prehension was not even a real word. She would have to do some deep digging after the first hearing. Then she would have a better idea where to focus. She sat back and watched as the parties entered the room.

One of the first things she noticed was there were other reporters representing major news outlets. She tried to imagine how she would differentiate her story from theirs. She guessed they would focus on the traditional who, why, when, what and where, so she would dig beneath the surface. Especially when government agencies were involved it often paid to look at the personalities and quirks of the people involved.

Chapter 3

THE HEARING

John scanned the committee meeting room to get a feel for the mood and general atmosphere. Today it was tough to read. Perhaps it fell somewhere in the middle -- business-like, but not funereal. His feelings inched a notch higher.

He was curious to see who might be sitting in. A large audience would probably mean trouble. The average American did not journey to DC to voice his or her opinion about the criminal justice system. He noted the audience was small and contained several familiar faces, including a couple of local reporters. His boss, Marvin Delacourt, was there reading the morning allotment of reports. He caught John’s eye, gave a broad smile and a thumbs-up signal. John smiled reflexively and returned the gesture.

John did notice a young woman sitting by herself with her laptop open. From the way her eyes roamed the room, John guessed she was taking notes about the physical surroundings. John’s gaze lingered a few extra moments. She appeared to be in her mid to late twenties with long dark hair and olive skin -- businesslike, but strikingly pretty. This woman was definitely not part of the usual crowd at these hearings. A new face could mean a new threat. He would make a point of finding out who she represented.

He walked up to the witness table and began to organize his notes. As he was finishing up, his assistant and legal counsel slipped into the room and joined John at the table.

As they passed the next few minutes reviewing strategy, John was unaware of the arrival of two more spectators in the gallery. Both were serious looking men in their late thirties with the expensive, hand-tailored suits one usually does not see on civil servants. The role they planned to play in the Eco-prehension program would be similar to that of a lobbyist. The primary difference was in the type of pressure they applied. They would not persuade based on a loss of votes or voter contributions. These men would persuade by using whatever type of force would be effective.

Just as these men settled into their seats, the committee members began to arrive. When they were all present and the Chairman of the committee had introduced each of the members of his committee the Clerk quickly swore John in. The Chairman began with little further formality.

Dr. Winters, we’re pleased you could join us today. Your proposal for the funding of an alternate form of criminal incarceration is most interesting, but also presents some very disturbing questions. We expect you to clarify these issues for us to the best of your ability.

Congressman, I’m at your disposal for as long as you wish. My goal is to give you all the information you need to make the right decision.

The first thing we’d better put on the table, Dr. Winters, is your own background. Is it not true you served time in a state prison for a felony? Do you feel your history might make you a less than unbiased source of information?

John was glad the potentially damaging information was coming out right up front. Even better, the Chairman who was not outright antagonistic, was the one asking those questions.

"The answer to your first question is ‘yes,’ Congressman. I served three years for aiding and abetting a robbery. Although I had nothing to do with the robbery per se, I was involved and I was guilty. I know it sounds trite, but I served my time and learned from it. To answer your second question, I feel my experience gives me insight most citizens do not have into the workings of our penal system. There is no way I would ever want to go back to prison, but the experience there was invaluable for someone in my current position."

The Chairman turned to his colleagues and continued, Are there any of you who feel Dr. Winters’ background somehow renders him unfit to represent his department in this hearing?

Four heads each signaled in turn a quiet no. The other men and women on the committee knew they were in a delicate situation. If they accepted the system could sometimes rehabilitate, then they had to recognize its success with Winters. Although his doctoral thesis had specifically addressed why our prisons cannot be designed to rehabilitate, which was the Federal Bureau of Prisons official stance, he himself was an exception to the rule. The committee members would have to attack the idea, not the man.

The Congressman from Texas won a nod of recognition from the chairman and began his questions with the same type of enthusiasm that made Torquemada so popular with his fellow Spaniards during the Inquisition.

Dr. Winters, I really appreciate the amount of work you’ve put into this project, but it’s really nothing new. It’s just a proposal for a penal colony with a new, fancy, politically correct name. I really don’t see why you’re here wasting our time with such a thoroughly discredited concept.

The room became so quiet that everyone became conscious of the whisper of the air conditioning. It was the only sound in the room. The ball had been served into John’s court, and it definitely was not a lob.

John, recognizing this type of attack, responded slowly and politely, Congressman, I understand the thrust of your statement. Is there a question I can answer for you today?

The Congressman donned the robe of condescension he so loved to wear in hearings and restated his opening.

How, Doctor Winters, does your proposal differ from a plain, old penal colony?

John took a deep breath and began:

A penal colony has always been, in its simplest form, a prison away from home – a change in its location, not in its concept. Prisoners were assigned there, served their sentences under the watchful eyes of the administrators and jailers and sometimes even returned home. Indeed, you could easily call any modern penitentiary a billion dollar ‘penal colony.’ The inmates are physically removed from what we call ‘society.’ They live in their own society made up entirely of prisoners and watchers.

And your proposal is somehow different?

"Eco-prehension is very different. First of all, we designed it only for those society has decided, if I may put it bluntly, to warehouse. These men will never be paroled, and there is no longer any discussion about ‘rehabilitation.’ Society’s goal is to isolate these men from the rest of us until they die. The question we’re addressing today is, ‘What is the best way to keep them isolated’? Shall we continue to cage them like animals in expensive, overcrowded facilities? Or should we isolate them in a relatively inexpensive facility, with a certain degree of personal freedom?

Settlers, which is what we call the men in Eco-prehension, will run the facility with no contact or influence from the outside. We will train them with needed skills, but how well they live is entirely their own responsibility.

With the skills and materials we provide, the settlers can live with approximately the same standard of living enjoyed by the Amish people in this country."

John then paused and attempted to lighten the mood by adding, although without the carriages.

As John finished responding to his first major question, every hand on the committee shot up for recognition. The good news, thought John, is I now have their attention.

Each of John’s answers seemed to trigger another torrent of questions and the day rushed madly by. At five o’clock the Chairman asked John to sum up, and he did so quickly. He repeated the salient features of the program and then reminded the committee members the problem in this country was acute, and no one had come forward with a better answer. The choice was to try his suggestion or flounder in the status quo.

At the end of the day John was so exhausted by the questioning process that he could not even guess where he stood with the committee. He would know soon enough.

Chapter 4

TANAKA REACTS

The first hour and a half’s questioning had truly amazed Kim Tanaka. These people were talking about a project that would change men’s lives forever and maybe end some of them prematurely! There was no real discussion of the human impact or of how it would change the lives of the loved ones who still visited prisoners. Even though the sessions had been question and answer, the answers just raised more questions. The most frustrating thing was they talked about Eco-prehension, but no one explained exactly what it was. Determined to get a clearer picture, she took the twenty minute morning break to read the material she had picked up from the clerk at the beginning of the session.

A short document labeled Synopsis of the Eco-prehension Proposal was right on top. She leaned back and began to read:

Synopsis of the Eco-prehension Proposal

Over the last 30 years, mandatory sentencing laws have dramatically increased the number of prisoners serving life sentences. This year there are approximately 60,000 men in Federal prisons who will never be eligible for parole.

Each of these men costs $38,000 to $45,000 per year to keep in custody -- a total annual cost of nearly three billion dollars. These men contribute significantly to crowding and are a barrier to those who do wish to serve their time and return to society. They are involved in a disproportionate number of assaults on and intimidation of other prisoners.

The Bureau of Prisons will settle these prisoners in one of several new Eco-prehension facilities. Each facility will be located on Federal land and will occupy approximately 100 square miles (64,000 acres). It will be located in a temperate climate zone and will house whatever number of men can live a basically pastoral life. The name Eco-prehension is composed of eco, environment or habitat, and the Latin prehendere, to seize. The settlers will be held within and by their habitat.

Each site will be provided with an initial allotment of settlers based on the site’s capacity. The first is expected to accommodate approximately 5,000 men. Each settler will be provided training in a basic trade -- farming, carpentry, animal husbandry, medicine, or cooking. Each will be provided the tools of his trade and enough raw materials to build his own housing. Basic foodstuffs, medicine, seeds for planting and farm animals will be provided.

A high-tech, extensively tested security strip will surround each site. Each site will also be guarded by a small group of US Army personnel who will patrol the exterior and monitor the site’s sensors. The guards will be rotated frequently and at random intervals. They will have no physical contact or communication with the settlers.

Each facility will also be provided with refrigeration plants and highly automated medical clinics. These will be the only points within the facility where electricity will be available.

A census will be held yearly. All re-supply of medicines, clothing, tools and certain foodstuffs will be based on this census. Although no materials suitable for guns will be allowed, knives and other cutting tools will be provided.

Within Eco-prehension settlers are allowed to live anywhere they wish. There are no rules whatsoever on how they live or interact with each other.

All settlers who enter an Eco-prehension facility will be permanently incommunicado. They will be allowed no visitors or contact of any kind with the rest of society.

Although the standard of living within an Eco-prehension facility will not be high by today’s norm, the quality of living can be very high. Intimidation and physical threats to settlers, common in today’s prisons, should be minimized by the low population density.

In summary: Eco-prehension provides a settler with an opportunity to live with a high degree of personal freedom, while isolated from society as a whole. The facilities will be inexpensive to acquire and maintain, and will be guarded by a small number of personnel.

Now that she knew what Eco-prehension was, the question of how to react to it tore Kim in several directions. Her first, gut reaction was to picture thousands of men who were permanently isolated from friends, family and the people they loved. Eco-prehension would lock them in a continuous struggle for survival with no hope for the future.

God, she thought, Why wouldn’t they just lie down and die?

Even as Kim struggled with how to react personally to what she had heard, she also had to consider what her story line was going to be. Since the reporters from the major papers would probably start with the basic facts, she needed to start digging deep and fast to find the story underneath. There would also be a wealth of people she could interview for background including ex-cons and prisoners still inside. And there was this Dr. Winters. He sounded like an interesting case in himself. Her mind was still running like a frantically unwinding spring when she heard the Chairman call the hearing back into session.

Kim fought to focus on listening while her mind desperately wanted to run ahead arranging interviews and writing the story.

Chapter 5

THE GO-AHEAD

John lay back in his lounge chair, conscious of, but not really listening to, the drone of the television news. He could not remember ever going through anything quite like the experience in front of the committee. He had long workout sessions while winning his black belt in karate, where the physical activity dissipated some of the adrenaline. Now he was still on edge even though this experience had sapped him physically and mentally. Dinner tonight was a cold beer and some cheese puffs. At a time like this he really missed having a woman in his life. Just having someone to talk with and share the stress of the day might be worth the tradeoffs. Maybe. But he still could not help remembering the woman whose help put him in prison. Did she talk him into driving the getaway car to help him out or she was playing him for a sucker? How could you ever really know? Her interest in him had sure disappeared fast when the threat of prison was hanging over her head.

He put these thoughts away and convinced himself, if there were someone close to him, it would just provide one more way those opposed to him could threaten him. A danger to him would be a danger to her and vice versa. Of course danger would only exist if the committee approved the Eco-prehension plan.

John still expected, of course, that the committee would say yes to the plan and its funding. Then the project would be on the road. However, he knew real success would come if they could get approval and begin work immediately without having to fight the press and the current prison system every step of the way. Continual fights would divert energy from doing to defending. He much preferred doing.

John was in such a semi-catatonic state he almost did not hear the warble of his cell. He debated for several seconds whether he should answer or not. But the phone was insistent, and it was displaying John’s assistant as the caller.

What’s happening, man? As hard as you’ve worked on this project, I’d think you’d be grabbing some R & R.

Well, you’re right about that, but I thought you’d definitely want to hear this.

John’s gut twisted as little. What’ve you heard?

As you know, boss, I’ve got a mole with inside information on the committee and she tells me the vote was unanimously in favor of authorizing the appropriation for Eco. There’re a lot of detail steps that still have to be taken, but it looks like we won!

John’s fatigue disappeared like fog under a hot sun.

Hot damn! This calls for a major celebration! Unanimous? I’m amazed! I wonder what really sold ‘em?

My mole says there were two big things. Our team had done its homework so well there just weren’t many objections we hadn’t covered. And the second one is really the biggie. The current system sucks. It’s horrendously expensive, dehumanizing for the prisoners and guards, and just tends to crank out more career criminals. Everybody knows that, but we were the only ones with a new, well-thought-out, workable idea. Eco will cost less than the current system, and, in my humble opinion, is a hell of a lot more humane. It didn’t hurt any you could look at this idea through the eyes of a con. When times are desperate even something as controversial as Eco can fly.

"Hey,