[col. writ. 3/23/13] © ’13 Mumia Abu-Jamal
The story is quite recent, and therefore, much is not known.
A state prison system commissioner opens his front door, and is greeted by flame and bullets.
A grieving governor (John Hickenlooper-Dem.) laments the killing of his friend, and initial reports suggest that the state’s highest prison official met his end because of a tiff with a disgruntled Saudi Arabian citizen in his state’s custody.
Then, within hours, another narrative emerged, but once again, the media concentrated on the sensational, missing the story within the story.
The press sped to tell of an Evan Ebel, the son of a friend and contributor to the Colorado governor’s campaign. The son, we are told, was close to a white supremacist prison gang.
Suddenly, we are knee-deep in speculation about white supremacist groups, as if this was the motivation for the slaying of the state’s prison chief.
Lost in all the hoopla is a comment by state officials that Ebel left prison in January, 2013, after significant time in solitary.
Think about that.
If a man leaves prison, and in a mere matter of weeks, embarks upon a killing spree (again, we don’t know this, but it is alleged), shouldn’t we examine his experiences in prison?
What forces so embittered him that he would rather die than endure them again? What, pray tell, must the conditions have been like to charge a man’s heart so, that (if initial reports are true), he slew three people in less than three months after release?
Questions unasked and unanswered.
Solitary confinement, experts tell us, is torture that drives men mad.
One thing is certain. Evan Ebel resolved to never return – no matter what.
–© ’13maj