One of the best jobs in prison is to train prison dogs. Jerry Metcalf describes how training prison dogs under the philosophy of the five freedoms highlights the irony of humane treatment for animals versus the inhumane reality for incarcerated people.
Prison Dogs and the Five Freedoms
Here in my Michigan prison, I train service dogs for a nonprofit organization, Paws With a Cause. That nonprofit organization believes in the five freedoms, which are internationally accepted standards of care that affirm every living being’s right to humane treatment. These standards were developed by Britain’s Farm Animal Welfare Council in 1965, and adapted by the Association of Shelter Veterinarians for companion animals in shelters.
What I find most interesting about the five freedoms is that they’re thought of in terms of how animals, like our prison dogs, should be treated. Yet, on America’s modern-day plantations, no such ethos exists. Here, we 13th Amendment slaves are treated like property, not living beings. This perplexes me, mostly because we prisoners are still human, even if we’ve broken the law.
I argue that the five freedoms should apply to all 13th Amendment slaves across America, but I’ll show you how they don’t.
Freedom From Hunger and Thirst
In Michigan prisons, several slaves have died of thirst. That sounds unbelievable, but it’s a fact. Usually, when that completely avoidable tragedy occurs, it’s the result of a prisoner being tossed in solitary confinement, placed on punitive water restriction, then forgotten.
Speaking of food, ours sucks. Just the other day, the masters served raw chicken. Raw. Fucking. Chicken. Can you believe it? Imagine if KFC or Popeye’s did something similar, what type of uproar might America’s TikTok community cause? Most 13th Amendment slaves in prison suffer from hypertension, diabetes, or both. This is a direct result of our ultra-processed, salty, high-carb diet. It’s literally killing us.
Freedom From Discomfort
Our “resting areas” are far from comfortable, and we slaves are stacked in here like cord wood. Hell, I was once thrown in a solitary confinement cell with no clothes, no blankets, no mattress, and no toilet paper. The window was not only broken, but painted over. And the light switch didn’t work. I spent two or three days shivering in that shithole, pacing back and forth to stay alive.
Freedom From Pain, Injury, or Disease
In prison, there’s a reason we call the Health Care Department “Death Care.” Truth is, prison health care companies (and lots of their employees) are a bunch of lying, manipulating, money-grubbing entities. I’ve yet to encounter one that places people’s lives over profits.
I suffer from kidney disease, and on the day my affliction was thrust upon me, I arrived in Death Care urinating blood. I was terrified. But, surely I was rushed to the hospital, or at the very least, seen by a doctor? Nope. The nurse (LPN) on shift that day illegally diagnosed me.
I’ve watched Death Care kill many of my friends. And it doesn’t hurt any less each time it happens.
Freedom to Express Normal Behavior
Prison overcrowding is a real thing. There is no “sufficient space.” I share two toilets and a shower with 50 other slaves. 100 if you count the guys upstairs.
Also, if you knew how complex the masters have made our visiting policy, you’d understand that we are definitely discouraged from the “company of our own kind.” This hinders our chances of rehabilitation in ways you can’t fathom.
Freedom From Fear and Distress
Prison is nothing but continuous mental suffering. Even I suffer terribly—one who meditates, prays, smiles, and laughs daily.
No, what stresses me the most is the masters. From them, there are no “safe hiding spaces.” In prison, the guards are the worst predators of all. Some of them are pure evil. While others, the so-called “good ones,” are only good when it benefits them.
Learning From Prison Dogs
In general, I see the five freedoms as a wonderful thing. I love my prison dogs, and want to do right by them. I just wish the elected government would wise up and feel the same way about us 13th Amendment slaves. After all, we too are human beings with mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children, and—most importantly—souls that need to be nourished, not neglected.
95% of us will undoubtedly return to society, so which would you rather have living next door to you: a former slave who for decades had been tortured, abused, and filled with rage and resentment? Or a rehabilitated man who had been treated with an ethos similar to the five freedoms shown to our prison dogs?
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My name is Jerry Metcalf, and I wish to make the world a better place.
