Qualities of a Prisoner Ally

[Republished from "Anarchist Black Cross Information and Resources, Second Edition," December 1993, by Nightcrawlers ABC (now disbanded)]

There are many ways of "helping" prisoners.

One is to impose what you think is "best" for them. This is the typical approach of well-meaning "experts" and "professionals" who are members of the criminal [in)justice bureaucracies.

Another way of "helping" prisoners is through charity. We use chanty in prison to provide relief of suffering and Do express compassion. But there are problems with charity: Charity creates dependency, it communicates pity rather than shared outrage and can romanticize the prisoner. Charity sometimes relieves the sufferings of prisoners, but it does not alter the basic conditions responsible for the sufferings.

A third way of helping prisoners is to become their ally. These are some of the qualities of a prisoner ally as compared to those of the charitable person:

The charitable person does not think of altering the prisoners persistent need for help. The prisoner must always depend on the good will of the charitable.

The prisoner ally helps the oppressed prisoner become empowered to change his/her situation.

The charitable person often acts out of guilt and pities the prisoner who is seen as a "poor soul."

The prisoner ally treats the prisoner as an ally in change, sharing anger about prison oppression.

The charitable person might think that the prisoner's situation comes from some fault within the prisoner.

The prisoner ally identifies social and cultural forces that contribute to the cause of the prisoner's oppression.

The charitable person often has a plan for the prisoner, who is not regarded as a peer.

The prisoner ally and the prisoner strategize together, mutually: no one must be "thanked."

The charitable person expects the prisoner alone to change.

The prisoner ally works with the prisoner and takes mutual risks, experiencing change also.

The charitable person has his/her own view of what the prisoner must feel.

The prisoner ally understands the prisoner's experiences through the prisoner's own words.

The charitable person has easy access to the criminal (in)justice bureaucracies.

The prisoner ally often has a stormy relationship with the bureaucracies, because s/he is perceived as threatening to persons who hold power in the system.

Note: Obviously we are not proposing that the ally and charitable person are always so very opposite or that people ever actually fulfill either role in exactly the same man- ner presented here. Rather, our purpose is simply to contrast the basic quality of these two relationships. learning how to become an ally is an abolitionist task.

- This was originally published in Reality Now

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