The Prescience of Penthouse

Sometimes you find prophecy in unexpected places.

Earlier today, while reading the September 2000 issue of Penthouse (the one with Aria Giovanni, explaining the initial interest), we noticed that there was an "investigate report" on George W. Bush's tenure as governor of Texas. It specifically related to his oversight of that state's prison system.

Boudicca and I were quick to note the comparisons between his mishandling of that system and the war in Iraq. For example, tell me if this following passage was written about abuses in the Texas Division of Criminal Justice or the Iraqi Government:

And, increasingly, correction officers are turning to the gangs, not to each other, for protection. Many guards are then recruited to be "carriers," smuggling drugs, cigarettes (which were outlawed by the TDCJ in 1995), and other contraband to supplement their paltry state salaries... several wardens report discovering staff members who are simply paying cash for protection...

Where were the guards coming from, you ask? It shouldn't be a surprise to hear that they cut corners to meet recruitment goals:

When the TDCJ reached a 1,000-officer shortage in 1997, the training academy shortened its program from six to four weeks. Height and weight standards were also eliminated... and academic standards lowered. All it takes now is a GED to get in, and a 60 percentage average on academy tests to graduate.

In this truly lawless environment, the article noted, the real rulers of the prison system were those inmates who could unleash the most savage violence in the most effective manner. How worse, then, when inmates incarcerated for non-violent crimes were dragged into this world?

The analogies to the bungled occupation of Iraq are amazingly clear in retrospect: an understaffed and underpaid group of professionals, many of whom are also undertrained; the deployment of shocking violence by criminals to cow individuals and groups; the forced radicalization and criminalization of the populace for their mere survival.

I wish I could say the analogies stopped there, but the article reminded me that Bush's contempt for the rights of putatively free citizens is nothing new, as well:

The law [passed and signed by Bush in 1995] made direct appeals... and habeas corpus proceedings... take place concurrently. The problem with this legal tweak is that issues normally raised in a habeas corpus petition haven't been discovered until the direct appeal concludes its investigation of the original trial.

It seems I was reading the wrong part of the magazine in '00.