I have a friend who has filled out paperwork necessary to visit me multiple times and has not been approved or denied to do so. When he calls the prison to check the status of his request, he is told they cannot give out any information. When I go through the “proper” channels, I am told I will be notified of approval or denial when the application is sent in.

Well what happens when nothing happens? Exactly that: nothing.

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This friend of mine has since given up trying. For some reason his application is not making it to where it needs to go. And really, what motivation does a prison employee have to process it? Especially when inmates have no viable recourse. Sometimes the job is done, and sometimes, I can only assume the paperwork is lost or tossed.

It’s just the way it is. I can be upset about it or I can move on.

Occasionally, the result of this sort of apathetic behavior is not as inconsequential as whether or not someone can visit. Recent laws have given prisoners a chance to reduce their sentences through the completion of specified programs; however, I don’t imagine lawmakers anticipated having a short in the procedural circuit.

I have heard of multiple instances in which a prisoner completed a qualifying program, but the accomplishment went unseen to the powers that be, and therefore unrewarded, because the process relies on prison staff or “caseworkers” to complete the procedure. In some cases they tell the inmate they won’t do it, and in other cases they tell the inmates they did do it when they did not.

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It feels malicious, but I spoke to an officer about this who says it simply comes down to laziness and indifference, though he fully acknowledges that to help inmates means taking the other side. He is pro-inmate and apologizes for his co-workers but warns against raising a fuss, which is not my intention now. I only use these examples to highlight the unproductive and adversarial culture that exists.

On the other side there are plenty of things prisoners do to cultivate the animosity, and as a general rule, are the more egregious offenders. I am not at liberty to share the more unpleasant examples of antagonisms by prisoners or their jailers, suffice it to say there appears to be, at best, a callous indifference and, at worst, a genuine hatred between both sides.

There is too much of an “us vs. them” mentality within the system. We should be working together to produce the best possible product. In the case of the penal system, the general public is the customer, and the product is supposed to be rehabilitated offenders returning to society.

The fervor between the two parties seems to be at an all-time high with police and parolees continually on the news for shooting and killing each other. Unfortunately, the prison culture seems to intensify this adversarial relationship rather than creating an environment that supports the correction aspect to the system. Most government bureaucracies lack the efficiency of their free market counterparts, but the “us vs. them” mentality in prison makes progress that much more difficult.

Brian Wood, formerly of Layton, is an inmate at the Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison. He pleaded guilty to nine felony charges for offenses from 2011 to 2014, including counts of burglary, drug possession and prescription fraud. He could spend up to 35 years in prison, depending on parole hearings.