Rule by Nobody

Hannah Arendt once defined bureaucracy thus. And she said of it, "If we identify tyrrany as government that is not held to give account of itself, rule by nobody is clearly the most tyrannical of all, since there is no one left who could even be asked to answer for what is being done." What she says next is as striking as it is relevant to the basic dynamic of prison society: "It is this state of affairs, making it impossible to localize responsibility and to identify the enemy, that is the most potent causes of the current (written in the 1960's but just as relevant today) world-wide rebellious unrest, its chaotic nature, and its dangerous tendency to get out of control and to run amuck" (Arendt in her essay "On Violence").

"I want a grievance right f--ing now!" Bang, bang, bang. "Get the grievance clerk down here now ^&5@$!" Bang, bang, bang. This is a daily routine here--the default response whenever a ward feels that he has been treated unjustly. The cards are always stacked against him of course; and I have seen an equal amount of frivolous and legitimate grievances, all following this precise pattern. Welcome to the first step in the bureaucratic process of the youth prison grievance system.

In theory, a polite and helpful staff is supposed to send a competent ward grievance clerk to deliver a numbered grievance form to the ward grievant. He is then supposed to fill out the form, and return it to the clerk who logs it and then submits it to the living unit Senior Youth Correctional Counselor. She is then supposed to exercise all of her competence and training to weigh the merits of the grievance, and deliver the preliminary finding. If the grievant is not satisfied, an appeal process is enacted that basically climbs the bureaucratic ladder of the institution.

In practice, literally anything can happen. The grievance clerk is never sent, or more frequently, he is instructed not issue the grievance. Or the grievant is offered some small pittance (I have seen anything from doughnuts to electronics) in exchange for withdrawing his request. Or the grievance gets “lost” (usually thrown away). Or perhaps its most frustrating fate, it actually makes its way along the prescribed bureaucratic track—and the grievant is patronized, the issue is evaded or ignored through the masterful use of technicalities, staff are defended, and the grievance is finally “resolved”, that is, a higher, ostensibly more competent bureaucratic official proclaims, ex officio, a last and final judgment, whether in accordance with policy or not, and the whole matter is dropped. Usually by that time the grievant is either pacified to his satisfaction, so disillusioned that he gives up with no further objection, or has further demonstrated his immaturity and “acted out”, usually violently, and the issue is therefore transformed into an issue dealing now with the wards own behavior. The buck gets passed endlessly in the process. The faces change, the only consistency being certain favored clichés, taught I think in a top secret ministry for bureaucrats deep underground---“I’m just doing my job.” Or, “I’m just following policy.” Or, “Well, you’ll have to take that issue up with my boss.” Or dozens more instantiations of the same oxymoronic expression of bureaucratic responsibility.

Prison Rule by Nobody is the leading cause, in my experience, of tension, anxiety, and violence in prisons. It underlies every other problem, taints the whole superstructure, and is therefore partially responsible for them all.