Perhaps once a month or more, I listen to prisoners discussing or debating whether or not they are inmates of convicts. During those verbal exchanges, they cite their perceived merits or demerits of being either an inmate or a convict. By far, many of those debating prisoners favor being called convicts.
Many inmates today describe an inmate as week, foot-shuffling, head scratching person whose mentality is “rest the mule, boss. I’ll plow the field.” In prison, many of those described as inmates are also suspected of being snitches or rats.
CONVICT – comes from the word CONVINCE – to overcome, convict of error, to conquer. Most inmates and convicts are neither. They are prisoners. Prisoners of a Prison Industrial Complex and a failed War on drugs.
