by anarchist prisoner Michael Kimble
The ongoing recuperation and pacification program targeting rebellious prisoners here at Holman prison by the state and in collusion with outside religious ministries has prompted me to write about the absurdity of religion and the logic of submission it induces.
Most prisoners adopt some form of religious doctrine in the face of this unyielding onslaught against them by the criminal justice system in an attempt to make sense of the situation they find themselves in and in hopes that things will turn out in their favor, and as coping tools. Most have been socialized into religion before coming to prison, beginning as a small child. The pressures of poverty, oppression, and survival forced them to abandon ritualistic religion, but when they find themselves in prison, they revert back to their childhood religious instructions – that god has a purpose in life for them and to put their burdens in god’s hands because no one knows god’s design for the human being.