{"id":13474,"date":"2018-09-01T02:06:12","date_gmt":"2018-09-01T02:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=13474"},"modified":"2018-09-02T02:13:39","modified_gmt":"2018-09-02T02:13:39","slug":"through-his-art-a-former-prisoner-diagnoses-the-systemic-sickness-of-floridas-penitentiaries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/through-his-art-a-former-prisoner-diagnoses-the-systemic-sickness-of-floridas-penitentiaries\/","title":{"rendered":"Through his art, a former prisoner diagnoses the systemic sickness of Florida’s penitentiaries"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nicole R. Fleetwood<\/a>, Rutgers University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2007, Haitian-American artist Moliere Dimanche was sentenced to 10 years in Florida state prisons, where he ended up serving eight-and-a-half years.<\/p>\n

While imprisoned, he made art \u2013 a series of pencil drawings on the back of stray sheets of paper \u2013 to document the brutality of his time spent behind bars, much of it in isolation.<\/p>\n

In 2017, I was introduced to Dimanche, one of the dozens of currently and formerly incarcerated people I have interviewed over the past several years for my forthcoming book on visual art in the era of mass incarceration.<\/p>\n

Often using state-issued material or contraband, imprisoned artists use a myriad of genres and styles<\/a> to create political collages, portraits of other imprisoned people and mixed-media works that comment on abuse, racism and the exploitation of prison labor. <\/p>\n

In Dimanche\u2019s story, I see the stories of thousands of others in U.S. prisons who are using art and creativity to shine a light on their experiences and advocate for systemic change. <\/p>\n

A malignant system<\/h2>\n

Florida prisons, in particular, have become notorious for their pervasive culture of neglect and abuse. <\/p>\n

In 2016, investigative reporter Eyal Press wrote about<\/a> the torture and routine abuse that took place in the mental health units of Florida\u2019s prisons.<\/p>\n

Central to Press\u2019 account was the case of Darren Rainey, an incarcerated man with a history of schizophrenia who was scalded to death when prison officers forced him into a shower of boiling hot water.<\/p>\n

According to The Miami Herald<\/a>, at least 145 people have died in state penal facilities so far this year, making Florida\u2019s prisons among the deadliest in the country. <\/p>\n

In response, many inside have resisted or continue to resist the inhumane treatment and prison conditions. Earlier this year, prison laborers in Florida organized a strike<\/a> to protest unpaid labor and brutal working conditions. (Many of the participants were punished with solitary confinement.) <\/p>\n

In August, incarcerated people in Florida joined others across the country in a nationwide prison strike<\/a>. Their demands<\/a> include being paid prevailing state wages for their labor, reforms that would allow prisoners to file grievances when their rights are violated, and a reinstatement of Pell grants in all U.S. states and territories.<\/p>\n

While these strikes can certainly bring attention to dire prison conditions, the stories of incarcerated people can also emerge in creative and clandestine ways \u2013 in drawings, photographs, paintings, letters and poetry<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Incarcerated activists like Kevin \u201cRashid\u201d Johnson \u2013 whose Guardian essay<\/a> denouncing prison labor as \u201cmodern slavery\u201d went viral in August \u2013 also use art<\/a> to communicate with the public.<\/p>\n

Because prisons are institutions of constant surveillance and censorship, art can serve as a crucial conduit for self-expression and as a tool for survival \u2013 a way to earn money, document prison conditions and stay connected with the outside world.<\/p>\n

Drawing to survive<\/h2>\n

After Moliere Dimanche was sentenced, his family was unable to financially support him. From the costs of phone calls to commissary items to the expenses of visits to see imprisoned relatives, prisons can be a financial drain for families already struggling to get by.<\/p>\n

Dimanche soon realized that he could use art as currency for toiletries, clothing, cigarettes, writing utensils and coffee. Other incarcerated men \u2013 and even some prison staff \u2013 commissioned him to make portraits, drawings and greeting cards that they would then give to their loved ones. He also designed tattoos and fashioned a tattoo gun and ink from prison supplies.<\/p>\n

Dimanche ultimately created a series of fantastical, highly symbolic, allegorical drawings during his time in solitary confinement. They are bold, cartoonish representations. Filled with dark humor, they provide a sustained lens into the abuses inside Florida\u2019s prison system.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n Moliere Dimanche realized that his drawings could accomplish much good: He could take care of basic needs, document his experience in prison and relay messages to the outside world.<\/span>
\n Moliere Dimanche<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While art gave him a way to provide for his basic needs and acted as an outlet for creative expression, Dimanche also became an expert of the state\u2019s penal system and how it stifles the rights of the imprisoned. Early into his sentencing, he began to study law and to advocate for himself and others.<\/p>\n

He became a writ writer \u2013 a jailhouse lawyer \u2013 filing grievances and writing briefs on behalf of fellow prisoners and himself. <\/p>\n

But he believes his legal advocacy only subjected him to more punishment and surveillance. He was held in solitary confinement for much of his sentence. <\/p>\n

Even in isolation, he continued his writ writing and making art.<\/p>\n

In a piece called \u201cPills and Potions,\u201d Dimanche depicts himself as the Monopoly Man, and converted the Monopoly board into the Florida Department of Corrections, with each property representing a different prison.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n \u2018Pills and Potions\u2019 is an allegorical drawing that depicts Moliere Dimanche as the Monopoly Man \u2018bouncing around from prison to prison.\u2019<\/span>
\n Moliere Dimanche<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI had been bounced around so much for writing grievances,\u201d he explained,
\n\u201cI just depicted myself as the Monopoly man running around the board, bouncing around from prison to prison.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cI had to find a way to laugh about some of this stuff.\u201d <\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing funny about some of the brutal forms of punishment depicted in many of his pieces. <\/p>\n

There\u2019s what Dimanche calls \u201cthe strip<\/a>\u201d \u2013 a punishment in which guards \u201ctake your linen, they take your mattress, and they take your clothing, and they put you in a cell for 72 hour restriction and you don\u2019t have anything in there \u2026 and it\u2019s absolutely freezing in that cell and you have stay in it without clothing or anything the whole time.\u201d <\/p>\n

According to Dimanche, \u201csaving a life\u201d involves a corrections officers shackling a prisoner to supposedly take him to a medical appointment. But once he\u2019s out of the cell and out of sight, they slam the prisoner\u2019s head against a wall.<\/p>\n

Dimanche also documents a common abuse practice in Florida where officers gas people confined to their cells. These practices have led to reported deaths<\/a>. Dimanche calls one form of gassing \u201cBlack Jesus\u201d: Guards lock someone an isolation cell and gas them through the porthole<\/a>. The gas, he explains, \u201ccomes in a big black can and it\u2019s known to make people scream for Jesus.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dimanche titled one of his pieces after this punishment by gassing, and depicts a guard gleefully spraying a hanging Dimanche. <\/p>\n

\n \"\"<\/a>
\n \u2018Black Jesus\u2019 is a searing critique of the ingrained racism of Florida\u2019s prison system.<\/span>
\n Moliere Dimanche<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cBlack Jesus\u201d also highlights the racism of Florida\u2019s prisons, where an ACLU study found black people are subjected to more abuse<\/a>. In 2017, two former Florida prison guards who were Klan members were convicted of plotting to murder an imprisoned black man<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Dimanche witnessed this racism firsthand. \u201cI was in a couple of institutions where it was revealed where a lot of the correctional officers were Klansmen,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

In \u201cBlack Jesus,\u201d he portrays a man who is half dressed as an officer and half dressed in a Klan robe to symbolize, according to Dimanche, how each group uses force to \u201creinforce old Jim Crow ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

A connection is made \u2013 and a bond forms<\/h2>\n

Eventually, another prisoner in solitary confinement put him in touch with Wendy Tatter, an artist living in St. Augustine, Florida. Tatter\u2019s son had also spent time in Florida prisons, and Dimanche wrote to her asking if she\u2019d be interested in seeing his art. <\/p>\n

Tatter recalled to me Dimanche\u2019s first letter \u2013 sent in September 2013 and written in a tiny font, so he could cram as much information as he could on the few sheets of paper available to him. <\/p>\n

She agreed to see his work, and he started mailing her \u201cthese gorgeous original pencil drawings.\u201d <\/p>\n

She told me that each was made with a broken pencil and no eraser. They arrived \u201con just random pieces of paper that he managed to find\u201d \u2013 on the backs of order sheets, Manila folders and old letters.<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n One of Dimanche\u2019s drawings was made on the back of a canteen order form.<\/span>
\n Moliere Dimanche<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The two wrote back and forth for three years until his release in 2016. Since then, he and Tatter have worked together to exhibit his work.<\/p>\n

On Sept. 9 \u2013 the day that the national prison strike ends \u2013 Moliere and Tatter will host a program on mass incarceration and prison reform at the Corazon Cinema and Caf\u00e9 in St. Augustine, Florida. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven though there\u2019s a lot of talk about prison reform now, it\u2019s bigger than sentencing guidelines,\u201d Dimanche told me. \u201cWe have to address the physical abuse in prisons.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lack of transparency and access to prisons and detention centers makes this work extremely difficult. <\/p>\n

Dimanche hopes that his art will open some eyes, and eventually end the American tradition of locking up, neglecting, exploiting and abusing millions in prisons across the country.\"The<\/p>\n

\n \"\"
\n Moliere Dimanche wears a T-shirt he designed using his prison art.<\/span>
\n Moliere Dimanche<\/span>, Author provided<\/span><\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nicole R. Fleetwood<\/a>, Associate Professor of American Studies, Rutgers University<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This article was originally published on The Conversation<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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