Most people think of no man’s land as a vast waste area that
is unoccupied and always hostile as it divides two or more territories between
the good and the enemy. Rarely do we think of it as peaceful and take it for
granted that the term serves a purpose for the good of society and the parting of
men and women alike behind barbed wire or high razor sharp fences. Hostile territory
that brings doubt and skepticism as this land is always under dispute,
controversy or conflicts. Whether the conflict is political, financial or
moral, the war has been waged for centuries why we have such conditions and
what there is to be accomplished by having them situated like this where grown
men and women fear to tread without some kind of protection.
It was the Army that first employed the term but it has been
expanded to include penitentiaries and other detention facilities that hold
convicted felons and devious minds. One must experience the culture and mindset
in order to understand it completely but if you do enough research you might be
able to envision what is really going on there beyond this no man’s land but
seeing only the tip of the iceberg at best. No man’s land does more than separate
the good from the bad. An invisible line to some and blurred lines to others,
there are deep emotions attached to this term as it means so many different
things to different people. To some it means incarceration for life or death;
for some it means a lengthy separation from family and friends.
Therein exists the fears of rape, murder, assaults and
thievery that is beyond society’s understanding. It is almost criminal how we
ignore this piece of land and pretend it doesn’t exist except for those
caretakers and gatekeepers that work hard to keep it out of the headline news
and safe to the public night and day.
It was the Army that first employed the term but it has been
expanded to include penitentiaries and other detention facilities that hold
convicted felons and devious minds. One must experience the culture and mindset
in order to understand it completely but if you do enough research you might be
able to envision what is really going on there beyond this no man’s land but
seeing only the tip of the iceberg at best. No man’s land does more than separate
the good from the bad. An invisible line to some and blurred lines to others,
there are deep emotions attached to this term as it means so many different
things to different people. To some it means incarceration for life or death;
for some it means a lengthy separation from family and friends.
There are too many people that work there it is a means of
job security as it is very likely such a place will never disappear and
dissipate into the fog or air. No man’s land is here to stay. No man’s land means
doing time and doing time means profits to some. Regardless of what your
thoughts are, for the past twenty years prisons and jails have grown and become
a major industry in our country. America is the world’s leader in jailing and
imprisoning people. Strangely, the United States incarcerates 25 per cent of
the world’s prison population when in fact it only represents 5 per cent of the
world population. It is no secret that the prison industrial complex has
received much needed help from legislators enabled by many lobbyists that have
paid a good price to see the industry grow exponentially in size and in costs.
The fact remains, America is under siege with many of their
young men and women facing jail time or doing time in the penitentiary for
breaking felony laws. Our country has waged an internal war against drugs, the
border, Wall Street corruption and violence inside our communities and schools.
Regardless of what we have done to make it safer, prisons remain full and
alternatives are sparsely used in fear of letting out those that might harm or
children or families thus release is guarded and deliberately stalled to
control the numbers back on the streets.
The bottom line is we have to realize that this no man’s
land is very expensive to maintain – although it may be unproductive and filled
with human beings and sometimes void of any living vegetation, resources or
structures, it has to be maintained at a top dollar price. The upkeep of such
concepts are never ending. This unwanted land saps the financial coffers of local
people, states and federal governments beyond their ability to replace the funds
draining much more than it will ever give back. Little is realized just how
much water and other natural resources are drained into the mouths of dungeons
and obscurity.
The only way we can make the costs more bearable is to make
it productive. Work on solutions to offer law breakers alternatives while
reducing prison populaces and jails so that the costs are reduced and repaid by
those who attend their punitive but reformative programs and pay society
back. We must instill personal
responsibility and make them aware of all consequences but we need to find a
better way to deal with their justice. We need to teach those incarcerated the
right ways of society’s rules and consequences for breaking them.
Allowing behavioral
and therapeutic treatment plans to work hand in hand with sound security to
keep it safe and a better making it more empathetic amongst men and women that
find the current existence of no man’s land acceptable although they have never
set a foot on such desolate and wasted land. We need to kill the apathy and bring back
common sense and empathy so that we may re-structure what has become our no man’s
land in hostile territory.
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