Caroline Giammanco is the author of the new book Inside the Death Fences: Memoir of a Whistleblower. It focuses on the Missouri prison system, where her husband, Keith Giammanco, is incarcerated. She also has written the books Bank Notes and Guilty Hearts. She teaches English at a high school in southern Missouri, and she lives in the Missouri Ozarks.
Q: Why did you decide to write Inside the Death Fences?
A: A few reasons led me to write this book. On a personal
level, I'd heard the occasional comments from people who mistakenly assumed I'd
only become involved in prison reform because my husband is incarcerated.
Always quick to assume inmates are manipulative, people have questioned why I
wrote my first two books, Bank Notes and Guilty Hearts.
In my first year inside the prison, before I ever met Keith
Giammanco, several shocking and disturbing events happened to and around me.
This was my chance to show that my experiences alone have been enough to fuel
my reform work.
More importantly, people need to know what their tax dollars
are paying for, which is a dysfunctional system that produces a very poor
product for all the money we spend on corrections. Our communities are not
safer when corruption keeps employees and inmates in worsening conditions.
Thanks to some breaking news stories in the past year or
two, people are slowly starting to awaken to the fact that the "good
guys" aren't always so good. News stories of employees being assaulted,
kidnapped, or poisoned by order of their superiors--or at the hands of their
superiors--and the millions of dollars that have been paid in lawsuits
revolving around such cases, verify that my experiences were not isolated
incidents.
As always, I wrote my story in as personal a way as possible.
People don't usually respond unless their hearts are involved. Simply reciting
statistics or charts from the Federal Crime Bureau doesn't have the impact of
putting readers in the moment in the middle of the corruption.
Q: Do you think the problems you encountered are unique to
Missouri’s system?
A: The short and simple answer is no. Prison systems across
the country are plagued by corruption. I have been contacted by numerous people
from across the country who have experienced the same types of corruption as I
did in Missouri. In Seth Ferranti's foreword to my book, he says what he saw in
federal prison is mirrored in my experiences.
Q: How is your husband doing now?
A: Keith is still incarcerated in Missouri. Because the U.S.
Supreme Court in June chose to uphold the use of Dual Sovereignty, our legal recourse
for his double jeopardy conviction has reached an end. We are currently working
on a clemency effort. We are hopeful that Governor Mike Parson will take an
interest in Keith's case.
Keith has spent nearly 11 years in prison and has a spotless
discipline record. Unfortunately, Missouri does not give good time behavior
credit, therefore Keith will be released no sooner than the biggest
troublemaker in the system. He still has over six years before he is eligible
for parole.
It's not always easy to keep our spirits lifted, but we are
a powerful team, and we will meet whatever challenges are still ahead of us.
Keith inspires me every day, and he is a remarkable man.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I want readers to set aside the urge to punish for long
enough to look at what's good for them. Too often, people believe that whatever
happens to inmates is okay because they committed a crime.
In the long run, that's not going to create a rehabilitated
inmate, and since 97 percent of all inmates return to our communities and the
recidivism rate is 68 percent, those aren't healthy numbers for anyone
involved. Dysfunctional prisons do not make us safer.
Beyond what happens to inmates, however, is the human toll
on the employees who work in the prisons. We have thousands of state employees
working in a taxpayer-funded department who live in fear every day of their
lives--not just from inmates but from the dangers they face from coworkers or
supervisors.
Missouri prison employees are under a gag order, but slowly
some are willing to speak even if it is in shadow and with voices disguised.
Even so, they fear retaliation. When the department's director and spokesperson
directly contradict what the boots-on-the-ground employees are telling the
media about assaults and riots, there is a serious problem. It's time we pay
for a system we can be proud of.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I've been writing some fictional short stories for fun,
but the major project I've begun is a murder mystery inspired by a real-life
event in my hometown. My childhood best friend was murdered in 2003, and this
book will be filled with small town intrigue and the skills of a persistent
journalist. While loosely based on my friend's death, this will be a chance for
me to do some fiction writing after a long stretch of heavy-hitting
nonfiction.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: Thank you for the opportunity to do this interview. If
readers would like to find out more, they can go join my fan page.
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